83 6.9 Valvetrain Noise?

[mintmoballen]

Hey guys, I recently bought this 1983 6.9 IDI and I've been noticing some annoying ticking that I can hear in the cab. The truck is 2wd with an ATS 085 and T19 with a Gear Vendor. The noise has not gotten better or worse in the few weeks I've been working on it. I ran some seafoam through the oil and changed it but it didn't seem to improve anything. I've owned two other IDI trucks before (a 1990 7.3 and a 1984 6.9) and neither of these trucks made these noises, however I think my friends old 84 had the same-ish noises (but I'm not totally sure). The truck has other weird issues to fix such as some terrible transmission noise but this ticking is the most concerning issue at the moment. It's also my daily driver for the time being (my 6 leaker is torn apart) so I can't really dig into it. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Was just wondering if anyone has experienced the same noise.

Kind of difficult to make out in the videos but in person it's very noticeable.

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(Please excuse me if my formatting is a bit wonky, I haven't posted much)

 

[franklin2]

Sounds like normal diesel noises to me. If it gets louder as you step on the throttle going up a hill, it might be a exhaust leak. Otherwise, everything sounds normal to me in all 3 videos.

 

[mintmoballen]

The weird thing is that it doesn't make the ticking I'm hearing for the first few seconds of running and only starts ticking when the oil pressure comes up. That's what makes me think some sort of lifter issue. I know it has the normal idi clatter but it does also have some ticking. I might just let it go though since the engine seems very healthy.

 

[CDX825]

Pull the valve covers and check the rockers for play. The early style rockers were problematic.

 

[BrianX128]

Not hearing it loudly until oil pressure [from running a few seconds, nothing to do with oil pressure itself] leads me to believe it's an injector not popping at the right pressure. That cylinder probably doesn't fire for a few seconds. When it starts firing every time the combustion is slightly out of time. When I got a new IP and injectors for my one idi few years back one of the injectors had a defect and leaked at the threads. While the seller was shipping me a replacement I went to Unadvanced Auto and bought one of theirs and it simulated a ticking lifter and the truck just didn't idle quite right at any rpm.

I wouldn't condemn anything but it's something to check.