Did you ever find out what was causing this?
No sounds at start up, idle, free rev, or throughout first gear 900-6000RPM that i can hear. If I do a manaul gear select and keep it in first and mash the gas/brake to load the engine/let the RPMS climb I dont hear anything.
I dont think its anything internal like a bearing, wrist pin, lifter, etc as it would scream out at me in 1st under load.
Here is a video of it. This is from a stop up to 4th at about 40. You can really hear it around the 49-55 second mark.
Could it be detonating/pre-ignition from bad knock sensors? I was going to burn up the rest of this 87 and run some 92 and see if it helped.
Transmission/converter?