I left my '05 at my buddy's shop yesterday. The tick in the passenger side valve cover is terrible! Its soo loud that it echo's through the exhaust pipe under the truck near the catts.
It got so bad the knock sensor has started pulling timing thinking it is detonation.
It seems to be coming from the front of the valve cover so it probably the camphaser.
It must have completely self destructed because it went from smooth and quiet to a jack hammer in just a few days.

Hopefully I'll hear from them soon with a firm diagnosis.

 

How many miles on it?

 

Just turned 132K. It's been having issues for a few months now. I posted a "Power Loss" thread awhile back.
That was about the time I started hearing ticking up front too. We ended up replacing the catts because they were shot. That made it run tons better but it was still way down on power.

Now I'm being told the ticking which has caused the knock sensor to activate is what killed the catts.
Low timing leads to a rich condition which superheats the catts.

Funny how all this bad crap can go on without ever throwing a code.

 

You're sure it's not a failing injector?

 

I'm sure! There's a small jack hammer under the valve cover. LOL

 

Just heard from my mechanic. Its the camphaser.

Its crazy though. I drove my '04 for 155k miles. 75K of those miles was with the camphasers (both sides) clattering like a diesel. Never affected performance whatsover. It was just annoying to hear.

With this '05, the passenger side camphaser skipped the "pleasant clattering" and went straight to "jack hammer" status and totally killed power.

 

Does your truck have the original VCT solenoids?

 

I'm unsure. I bought it with 100K on the clock. I know I haven't changed them.

I'm supposed to get it back this afternoon.

 

did he check the timing guides? mine broke and it felt like what you are describing.

 

Update: I haven't posted on this in a week or so. Well,,, it was waaay worse than we thought. Yes the cam phaser was bad but was not the main cause of the ticking.
The tick was caused by a broke lifter. It proceeded to grind up the cam and metal is circulated everywhere in the engine top to bottom. Its visually pasty in the heads and glittering in the oil. I rubbed my finger around the cam and got oily metal paste on my finger.
In short, we're having to replace the engine. I found one with 36K miles for $2200. It should be here in a couple days.

Geez, who knew?!

 

Ouch! I guess that's just one of the downsides of purchasing a vehicle with 100k on it.....

 

Yep.

 

At least it wasn't the VCT solonoids . . .

 

I admit I don't totally understand the relationship of all the parts in the cylinder heads and causes for parts to fail. I was just curious as it is a part that does perform a somewhat critical function in that area. Maybe you can enlighten me.

 

Hopefully you didn't take my comment the wrong way. It was tongue-in-cheek because of the fact that you have to replace the entire engine instead of just a few inexpensive parts.

In any case, here's a broad primer:

VCT Solenoid receives command from the ECU and controls the flow of oil to the cam phasers. The VCT's actually limit the flow of oil to certain passage ways to the cam phasers in order to advance/retard the cam timing on each side of the engine. The cam phasers are linked to the engine mechanicals via the timing chain and do the physical work of changing the cam timing. VCT solenoids can be changed out without too much fuss, Cam phasers are a much more invasive item to replace. If the VCT solenoids go bad, you throw trouble codes and the engine runs poorly, but will still function albeit at reduced performance. If the cam phaser has a failure/blockage, it could cause much worse symptoms in extreme cases, but usually just causes the infamous cam phaser diesel-clattering. In your case, the failed lifter was much more damaging to engine internals, including the camshaft.