Rocker arms

Hey so I just bought my first jeep, 2000. Cherokee sport 4.0, immediately noticed coolant leak a couple weeks after buying it noticed I was losing coolant like crazy. Ended up replacing the head and gasket, while in there replaced spark plugs, push rods, rocker arms. About a week later, I noticed a ticking, sounded like it was Coming from under the valve cover. Removed it and saw the rockers are very loose despite being torqued down. I understand that they move slightly side to side , but have almost an eighth of an inch of play moving up and down on some of them. Which ones are loose changes as the valves move, my overall question is does this sound like too much play? I really just want to finally be able to enjoy being a ember of the jeep community.

Welcome to jeepz.com. The play your speaking of is excessive. Either the lifters are bleeding down due to low oil pressure or the fulcrum pivots are worn . When you changed out the rockers , did you notice excessive wear on these pivots in comparison from one to another ? Before getting too involved with tearing into the rockers again , try something simple like a better brand of oil filter . What brand are you using now ? You may want to try the mopar brand since they have the proper internal restriction to provide good pressure and reduce drain back to bypass which reduces pressure and causes top end issues that are common with lesser quality filters. This is worth a try for diagnostics purposes. If your oil pressure seems reasonable and the filter dosen't help , it is most likely the lifters are bleeding down due to poor oil circulation . You can try some marvel mystery oil with your next oil change to see if this improves the issue.

Hey greg, thanks for the response, right now theres a fram filter on it. I didn't notice an excessive wear on any of the pivots, but I will try the oil filter and mystery oil, and let you know what happens.

Wix filter

Does this continue past start up? If so it is likely more than a filter.
What is your oil pressure?

X2 on the WIX filter . I'd use them more often if they would just keep them in stock more often. Just that they have to charge more and would rather save you money and keep you as a customer . But honestly , any things better than FRAM . Their quality has dropped. Yes , JPNinPA raises a question I did not ask ; when does this ticking occur ? When cold ? Warm ? Is there variation of oil pressure ? Is there any reason to suspect main , rod or cam bearings to be excessively worn ? That is where oil pressure drops and reduces volume to top end.

Sorry for not responding earlier, haven't had much time with school and work. The ticking is on startup for 5-10 minutes usually until the engine reaches temp and it gradually gets quieter until going away, then the engine runs as well as it ever has. I dumped some seafoam into the oil and it seems to be working at least a little bit. The next oil change I am also switching from rotella to a lighter oil, castrol gtx 5w 30 high mileage, and im putting a bosch filter on because unfortunately they didn't have the WIX, K&N, or mopar filter in stock. Also I have had a check engine light on for a bad gas cap but i figured id have the guy check it when i was there and I had misfiring on 3 cylinders, not sure if this is related, but im assuming so...

New update, on my way to school today, check engine light began flashing at me, car shook severely whenever I pressed the gas, and it had very little power, barely got it back to the house. Check engine code reader said the engine was misfiring on cylinder 4, now currently sitting in the driveway, out of commission once again...

Hopefully the final update, the engine light and misfires were from ever single spark plug gap being off, weird because we replaced all of them when we did the head, and I changed the oil to a light 5w 30, and seafoamed the engine again. There is now only sometimes a very quiet tick when starting the car, sometimes there is not noise, car is running great.

So the ticking was the filter? Or was it the plug?

Was the gap too small or large?