I searched for a couple of days for something on this and it seems that people are either having piston slap or the constant tapping of a bad lifter but I'm seeing something different.

I swapped in a tr220 cam a few weeks back and everything was fine for the first few days but now on a cold start I get a pretty loud tapping from the passenger's side on a cold start. The tapping goes away within 3-5 seconds once the oil pumps up and it will not come back for the remainder of the drive.

Any thoughts on what it could be? It's loud and doesn't sound good. I've already pulled the valve cover and everything looks fine so.

Thanks

 

I would replace with ls7 lifters and see how it goes. These guys are notorious for grenading a lifter, and when a lifter goes bad, usually soon after the engine will be bad

 

That's what I was afraid of but from what I had read a bad lifter will make noise all the time. Since my tick only happens on start up and goes away within three to five seconds, I was hoping it was something else.

 

How many miles on your lifters now?

It does sound like a lifter, i would replace them.

 

about 105k on the current lifters

 

Replace the lifters my friend.

 

my lq4 started tickin on start up before i change some stuff,i added .100 longer push rod and it never did it again

 

If it goes away after a couple seconds, it's probably not a big deal. It takes a second for the oil system to fully pressurize.

I would not replace lifters until one completely fails. It is a total PITA. Other people may think differently though; this is just my opinion.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I've seen a few posts about guys using a little bit of trans fluid in the oil to clean the lifters so I might go that route and see if it helps. If it doesnt I guess I will keep a close eye on it and replace the lifters if it gets worse