what is the cause of the valve rattle on start up? for the most part i have eliminated it during idle (unless the engine is hot when i restart it then it rattles away until i get above 2k rpms for a while) by adjusting the valves.

so what is worn out? oil pump, lifters. . . hopefully its an easy fix.

its the lack of oil pressure.... mine only does it on extreme cold starts because its trying to rev too high without proper oil flow... the easiest way for me to eliminate mine is if i know its cold enough to happen i hit the throttle causing it to rev lower before it actually happens.... not exactly a good description but i hope that helps

Are you sure it's valve rattle? It's fairly common on these engines for a worn timing chain tensioner to cause noise at startup.

hmm, i have done the blip the throttle to decrease the rev (also adjusted the cold idle to make sure it wasnt @ 2k) mine does it if its hot or cold every time i start it, sometimes i can hear the tapping all the time so i assumed it was valve. i proceeded to adjust the valves and that helped a lot but its still there (really bad if its cold.) this engine has 146k mi on it and the head has maybe 40k mi on it but i can not prove that. . .also i cant prove if they changed the timing change, should i try changing the timing chain just because (they are cheap)

All you would really need to change is the timing chain tensioner. But that requires removing the front cover.

IMH wrote:All you would really need to change is the timing chain tensioner. But that requires removing the front cover.

anything special i need to know about the front cover? gasket set for the whole motor is cheap so while im at it i would replace as much as i could get my fingers too. would this tensioner also cause a skip at idle?