Engine rattle under load

[Tobiasballard]

Hello. I'm new to this forum today. I have a 1943 353. I am in England and use my truck every day as a work horse. Just this week we moved 300 tons of soil across the farm. I wish I had a tipper now as I've been having to load and unload with a JCB. Anyway, back to my problem. The problem that I have is that under load on excellent action the engine has a rattle. Not a big end knock or pinking but a rattle. I can only think of two things that it could be. 1, the small end bearings at the top of the conrods. Or 2 the tappets but I can't thing why the tappets would only rattle under load. I do seem to have a tap at tick over from a tapper though. I think!!! The problem is that I work the truck so much at the moment that I do not have the time to take the engine out to explore the problem. I need her up and running as much as she can be. Any of you chaps experienced anything like this before. Thanks. Toby.

[Motto]

Are you sure that the noise is coming from the engine? I once had a baffle come loose in the silencer that only made a noise under certain conditions.

David