I've had the ticking for at least the last 15k miles (the duration of my ownership of the truck). Mine isn't related to engine temp and seems to go away altogether when I've run the truck hard for a while. I've had several respected Rover mechanics listen to it...all agreed that there were multiple possible causes and that most of the possible causes wouldn't be anything alarming.

@G Reeves, Have you done any troubleshooting?

More recently, I've picked up a little valve rattle at lower RPM's under load. Consequently I'm looking into installing a mechanical oil pressure gauge (and probably a couple other gauges while I'm at it.) After listening to it at MAR, my mechanic (a Rover specialist) has suggested that I might consider main bearings as potential culprit if pressure is borderline.

Now here's where I hijack the thread. (Sorry!) Obviously I have some more troubleshooting (i.e.- oil pressure, check the flex plate, etc...) to do before diving in to anything, so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but just for planning purposes, can anyone give me ballpark estimates and thoughts on the following...

- If I'm going as far as replacing main bearings, I'm thinking I might be better served to replace the oil pump, gears, and timing chain too. If I'm dropping the oil pan and pulling the front cover, roughly how long should I expect this to take?

- While I'm in there, what else should I plan to replace?

- Would there be any merit to the idea trying an even heavier weight of oil before testing the oil pressure? (I'm thinking 'no' the gauges might also yield some interesting insight into just how much a switch in oil weight impacts pressure, but also I also figure changing might be an easy band-aid in the interim while I collect parts and line up assistance/garage space.)

(Note: I did the water pump, hoses, thermostat, and fan clutch last summer (15k miles ago)...HG's were professionally replaced and heads machined shortly thereafter, but I don't believe a valve job was done. At this time (~110k miles), the truck uses no coolant, and although it leaks oil from somewhere on the front cover, it is a small enough amount that there is no notable loss on the dipstick over a 3k-5k oil change interval using either M1 10w40 or Rotella 15w40.)