Mk3 2.5di, ticking noise; Piston rings?

[andygee1138]

Hello all! Have not been here in a while but van has been as badly behaved as ever! STILL got a charging problem. Had MORE welding for the last mot and a while back the fuel filter fell off. On the motorway... Found it sitting on the starter but after refitting, cracking open the injectors and trying to bleed it I killed the battery... Oh and this was in the snow...
So now that's sorted and I have upped the idle (it's at 830. I built a tacho to check...) it ran beautifully. For a couple of days. Now however, at the top of the revs in 2nd and 3rd I am getting a worrying very rhythmic ticking from the front of the engine. Pretty sure it's not the box. Not been able to reproduce the sound stationary however. It just started, hasn't built up at all. My gut it saying piston rings. How screwed am I???

[Chug]

I would expect any engine noise to be there in all gears at the same rpm, the fact that it is in 2nd and 3rd and not other gears leads one to summise that its something other than the engine.

Have you got axle stands?
jack it up and sit it on axle stands and run it in gear.