I have a knocking noise. Doesn't get better or worse when engine warms up. It smokes a little right at startup.....but then the smoke clears. Truck runs awesome, lots of power. Any ideas?

TIA

 

A diesel engine has many knocks, a video would be helpful in figuring out your specific sound. other wise its a needle in a hay stack, or a knock in a diesel engine.

 

Diesels knock and get louder as they wear. If you have high miles, it may just be rattling because things are loose.

 

I'm more concerned about the some at startup. Could be an egr cooler failure..... That can lead to hear gasket failure.

 

egr cooler would smoke under load aswell, if not at all times

 

What color is the smoke? White? What weight/brand oil are you running?

Sounds like stiction to me. I used to have the same exact symptoms until I changed to 5w40 T6 synthetic.

 

If you want to save your self big dollars , first get your self a gauge, most us scan gauge2 then enter the ford PIDs . I"ll make a list of Idems to look at and test
1. Last fuel filter and water separator change. Only use OEM filters
2. FICM, need to monitor main power MP, Vehicle PowerVP , Logic Power LP , do this test cold start koeo ( key on engine off ) low ( in park just sitting at Idle )
3. alternator test , you don't want anything lower than 13.3 on full power meaning HVAC fan on , lights on, radio, wipers, Etc.
If we can knock these out in Values are good then we will go a step further

 

Sorry had to read again , but look into the above mentioned,
4. Take a pipe carefully place to the ear and the other end to rocker cover. You may have a rocker arm rattling and would advise getting that looked at.