My truck now has 23k on it and I have recently noticed a slight tapping on cold starts until the engine begins to warm up. I am coming up on my oil change interval and the truck was on a slight angle when I heard it a little louder this morning? Am I worrying for nothing or could it be the lifters?

Thanks guys for any input

 

its normal...mine does it too

 

I guess all this talk about lifters and phasers and what not got my mind racing

I took the truck on a nice two hour drive today and despite that startup noise it runs like a champ

 

well the 5.4s have noisey injectors...so that could be some of what your hearing...i heard about a guy on here that had alot of enging noise and he took it to the dealer and the had to replace a cam and a few lifters but if its just noise at cold startup i wouldnt worry about it

 

What brand oil filter are you using? It could be draining back into the pan.

 

I use motorcraft 5w20 and a motorcraft fl-820s filter

 

I wonder if the noise is not piston slap? If so, its nothing to really worry about. Whats happening is from a cold start the pistons are slightly loose inside the cylinders. Once the pistons heat up and expands in the cylinders, the noise will usually go away. Even General Motors had issues on their Gen III truck engines doing the same thing.

 

I supose piston slap could be possible but I have not heard much about that on these 5.4s. I plan on changing the oil tomorrow and I think I will try a mobil one filter this time around and see if anything changes.