could this be a blown head gasket??
 

i have a 2010 5.4 with an eforce blower on it, 55k miles. Im
hearing a slight ticking air noise only at certain rpms. Its mainly under loads in higher gear that you can hear it best. Even at its beat though its a fairly faint noise(i have stock exhaust), but its yet enough to bug me. At first it was my headers warped, so i changed those out and im almost 99% sure its not the case anymore as the noise is much less now and only coming from the drivers side from what i can tell.
I put a stethoscope on serveral parts of the engine at idle and everything sounds smooth besides the injectors ticking which i believe to be normal to some degree. These injectors only have 5k on them too( new with the eforce )
So now that you have some background. The only thing i see suspicous is a dreaded head gasket. I have a pic below from when i installed the blower, but didnt think much of it since no noise was present before or right after the blower install. I use no oil, antifreeze, and the truck runs normal. But there is some oil reside right and the gasket point on the drivers side. I cant figure oil leaking here though?
Ive done loads of research on this and im still uncertain! I would like some advice plz!
My next step is a compression test, so well see what that says.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...cdec3eb0e5.jpg



drivers side head


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.f15...82f9d5b3eb.jpg


pass side looks clean if u zoom in

Oil
 

How does the oil look?

The oil looks perfect.

Mmm I've had a ticking on my 09 5.4 since I've bought it... I was told it was my Cam Phaser by a local mechanic.. However he then told me with the new 09 and 10 model trucks he had thought Ford fixed the cam phaser issue. He advised me not to get it changed for the pure reason that once you do get your phaser changed it usually ends up ticking again. And is not worth the $2,000 to replace. With that being said That was a year ago or so and the ticking hasn't gotten any worse but it also hasn't gotten better. I plan on trading the truck into the dealership in another year or so and picking up a 2011+ so I don't really care at this point as I haven't noticed any declines in performance at all.

I'm not sure if you're ticking is the same thing but if it is I don't think it's anything to worry about?

ya ive looked into this too, most phasers seem to make noise all the time, not just under a certain load (could be wrong?) I put the stethoscope up to the front covers at idles and it sounded smooth as silk. Im just not sure either why i would have oil residue right there? Maybe my front cover is leaking slightly and blowing back along that area makin it look like that?

looks like something be leaking there but I would surely compression test before snatching the head. It was doing this before boosting it? would imagine if it was leaking before boost with the cylinder pressures up you woulda really noticed it...if you have to pull the head, might as well upgrade something :)