lifter tick?
 

I'm afraid my baby is trying to get sick. Occaionally when I first start it, there's what sounds like a lifter tick for just a few seconds. Today it was louder and lasted a second or two longer. It has good oil pressure but hubby thinks it might be the oil pump trying to go out. Any other ideas?

Run some seafoam in the oil for about 500 miles before your next oil change. See if maybe there is just gunk clogging an oil passage to the lifters.

That definitly sounds like a lifter, I wouldn't think it is an oil pump. When the lifters get old, the tolerances aren't as tight, and suddenly they stop holding oil and knock until the oil pumps them up. If you can distincly here something that sounds like a bolt tapping on a table, then it's just one lifter... if it sounds like the engine is about to fly apart, then it's probably the engine itself. If it was an oil pump, I'd think you'd have low oil pressure.

Great advice- make sure your using the right viscosity oil, too. Oil that's too heavy can sometimes have trouble pumping up the lifters when it's cold out.

It sounds like a lifter, we replaced them more than once in my '79 stepside, but with my truck they ticked ALL the time, not just at start up. I found something online that said if it's ONLY at start up it should not be anything serious, just that the oil has drained back down and the pressure hasn't built up yet, and that it usually happens at colder temps (I usually try to stay home when it's that cold). Not sure about the temps when I've heard it before but it was 35* this a.m. when we heard it, never heard it again when we started it the rest of the day.

The oil is the right weight.

I'd pretty much go with that unless you have some other kind of problems- some engines are more notorious for lifter tick than others (look at the LS engines)- but it doesn't cause any problems, and as long as it goes away when it warms up, I wouldn't worry.

I wouldn't think it would be the oil pump- the oil pump itself is driven directly off the crank, so if the crank is spinning, the oil pump is spinning. The only thing could be wear to the pump gears or something- but it would take some pretty severe debris and damage to cause big enough loss of oil pressure that the top end wouldn't be getting oil to it.

I guess I'll just keep me "ear" on it for a while since it doesn't do it everytime it's started and it goes away before it even gets warm, it's just the first few seconds after starting. I've heard it about 5 or 6 times in the last 4 months or so (hmmm, since the weather cooled back). Everything else seems fine. Just replaced the t-stat and ECT sensor (wasn't heating up to the correct temp according to the code) last weekend and at the same time we drained the Dex-Cool and replaced (it was super clean but didn't know if the PO had ever changed it and I've had it a little over 2 yrs) and did an oil change (oil looked good also - I change it evey 3000-3500 miles, Castrol GTX). May try the seafoam thing. Thanks.

I had this same problem on my Monte, started when it was cold out, then it would happen over the summer after the car would sit for a few days. When I was changing my LIM, i decided to do my lifters also. If you decide to change them order the GM LS series lifters from summit racing. Same GM part as the dealer but you get 16 of them for 120 bucks, vs the 60 bucks each at the dealer.

What kind of oil filter are you using? If you are using FRAM Filters that could be the issue. They have the moniker "Orange Can of Death" for a reason.