Topic

Just suffered a coil failure resulting in a piggy back trip from Marlborough to Southampton, saved on fuel anyway. Coil now replaced and up and running with one proviso one of the tappets is ticking away merrily to itself which in the confines of an MGF is a little annoying.
Car has full service history having had a dealer service 2k miles ago which has documented oil/filter change. and the Head gasket was replaced back in May 2012. Never had a sound before the coil issue and the only negative point to the replacement was a slight backfire on start after the coil was reconnected. I am going to be changing the HT leads as there is a slight flat spot but that is a seperate issue.
I am told the hydraulic tappets can drain but then will refill after a short while but have had the engine running for 20 minutes and its still tapping albeit possibly slightly quieter although that may be wishful thinking.
Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks to Paul for your thoughts but the oil looks clean.

Take it for a decent run for an hour or so and see what happens. Have just rebuilt my head and so all my tappets drained. Took a good run to get them all filled again, they only have a tiny hole in the side for the oil to enter and the corresponding "oil feed" hole in the head is just as tiny, the tappet needs to spin quite a few times in order for it to fill.

As you just had the coil replaced, are you sure the ticking is actually coming from the tappet?

I always look at the last work done. Has something been moved so it now taps against something else? Are any of the plug leads touching/ arcing against something? This is easiest checked in the dark as the spark show nicely.

If it is a tappet, then try some hydraulic tappet cleaner (available at all good motor stores) and then an oil change with a good quality 10w-40 (magnatec is well thought of)

Mgjohn (spits) over on the otherside suggests running oil for diesals in a petrol engine. The larger amount of cleaning additives in the oil cleans the engine and makes the tappers whisper again.

Run it for about 1k miles and swap for regular petrol oil.

Normally I wouldnt suggest to follow his advice but the results do speak for themselves.

Will try the no cost drive first and see what happens. Thanks for your thoughts.

Thanks to all for the help. Took it for a drive at the weekend still noisey tappets' just started up for a quick trip out, quiet as a lamb.
Ace advice sanity rules once more

Excellent.

The best kind of repair: fault mended by a nice drive out!