Yet another engine tick/knock thread

[Knigh7s]

Well, just 3 miles to go while on my way to work on Tuesday, my heart skipped a beat (or 100) when suddenly a tick/knock started happening from under the hood. It wasn't so bad until I pulled into the right lane in a tunnel I drive through to get to work. Opened my passenger window to listen to the sound reflection from the tunnel wall, and man did my heart sink even further into my stomach. I pulled into the employee parking garage and shut her down. First thing that crossed my mind, was when I last checked my oil level, answer: 2.5 weeks ago and topped off. So I checked and of course the oil level was right at the tip of the dip stick. I borrowed the company car to grab some oil (only ever used mobile1, eneos or royal purple) and topped off. Well, I decided to crank her over one time to get a better listen as to what it is so I recorded it as well. Here it is:

Isuzu Vehicross 6VE1 Engine Tick/Knock (Youtube) - be prepaired, every time I replayed the video I cringed and whined.

Is this rod knock or the timing belt tensioner pulley knocking on the engine block? Or both?

I'm deathly afraid that it is rod knock. If it is, I can't afford to get her fixed any time soon. Let alone have a place to store the VX.

I'm so crossing everything on me that it is just the tensioner pulley, because that can be done on the driveway and I have the tools/space to do that, but not a full overhaul.

Oil change is done every 3-4k miles, I drive 90% freeway to and from work (30 miles round trip) mostly rush hour traffic in the evening where with this 105* heat started showing signs of engine temp rising, but never more than 3/4th as turning off my A/C brings it back down to normal. Only thing I needed to change was my EGR, which was on the list of things to do this weekend. I've soaked it in seafoam, and made sure the tube was clear, but CEL code P0401 was still popping up.

To make matters worse, the eclipse is also down. We have the block on the engine stand torn down because of a snapped timing belt, valves embedded on one piston, cylinder wall scratched pretty bad, and head destroyed... So there goes the family backup car... <sarcastic tone>Don't you love it when everything just falls off track?</sarcastic tone>

UPDATE: Check this post by SilverBullet75. It contains examples of the difference between rod and tensioner sounds.

UPDATE2: Timing Belt Hydraulic Tensioner Failure Tick - A video of the tensioner pulley bouncing around under the timing belt covers.