Clicking/Ticking whoosh sound from engine

Looking up the sound of a rod bearing it doesn’t sound quite like it. The sound definitely sounds loudest on the valve cover but can be heard with a stethoscope from the exhaust manifolds on the passenger side and touching the front of the engine near the water pump. It’s definitely not coming from the bottom of the engine. I crawled under the truck to see and listen with the sethascope. I have drove a good 20 miles on it now with no issues other the occasional error code for the vacuum leak. Ignition wires are all in the correct cylinder. How do I know if it’s an out of spec valve, cam contact

 

There's a procedure for checking valve lash, involves rotating the camshafts and checking for clearance with a feeler gauge over the spring buckets. Someone may post it from the FSM or a link...

 

Interested in what you find out. My 99 has a similar ticking sound that increases with RPMs. I've checked my valve clearances and they are all within spec, my next guess is fuel injectors but I haven't had a chance to buy new ones/send them out for cleaning yet.

 

I used the stethoscope on all 6 fuel injectors but all sound the exact same with good movement in all injectors with no misfires going on 30 ish miles so far. I really really think mine is in the passenger side camshaft area. I plan on checking valve clearances today/tomorrow, Recheck torque valves and camshaft cap locations. I super super appreciate all the feedback from everyone on this forum.

 

It’s fixed!! I took off the valve cover and retorqued everything single bolt to book spec and a little bit of grease on each cap and put it back together. No more clicking sound. I took it out for a test drive and drove 10-15 ish miles with no issues. I really think that I had over tightened the camshaft down. I will definitely double check things in the future. Thank you again to everyone’s help.