My 1997 F-150 5.4 (128k miles) started to make noise from the passenger side head. Boy did I get nervous thinking all sorts of bad things. I sent it to a local Ford dealership for diagnosis because I had no time for getting involved with it. They were going to tear it down and find out what was wrong. They then called me with a price for a complete head for $3700 plus. I declined and said I would pick it up and paid their $28 diagnositc fee. I don't think they ever tore it down like they said they would. I brought it home and pulled the P/S valve cover and what do I find but the splash baffle under the PCV valve glued to the valve cover had come loose and was hitting the valve train causing the noise. I went back to their parts dept. to order a new Valve cover and what do I find in stock but the valve cover ($75) I needed. My guess because they had the valve cover in stock, that this is a known problem. Moral of story "Trust but Verify".

 

That's an interesting one. Can you describe the sound somewhat? I'm in the process of having my 2000 F150 5.5 checked for problems and "stuff".

Something else to be aware of.

Thanks,
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Sounded like a really loud, bad lifter and when I removed the oil filler cap it got louder with the noise coming out of the fill tube.