cold start engine tick

I have a 1999 Jimmy 4.3l that since it started getting cold and snowy, ticks for about 30 secs upon start up, the tick completely fades and does not reoccur for the duration of starts during that day. Should I be worried, it has 113,000 well cared for miles on it.


Thanks, PS I am a woman and although I know my way around an engine I am not good at figuring out wear this noise is coming from it is quite loud at first then goes away.

What weight of oil are you using when the oil is changed?

Are you using a Fram oil filter, if so, don't.

I use 10w30 castrol gtx, and yes I use fram filters, what brand do you suggest?

I use 10w30 castrol gtx, and yes I use fram filters, what brand do you suggest?

First of all use the proper grade of oil for your truck. It states right on the oil fill cap that you are to use 5w30. Castrol 5w30 is awesome stuff BTW, I love it.

10w30 is thicker than 5w30 in colder temperatures and will resist flow a lot more than a good 5w30. Heck, if your area is really cold, -20f to 10f, you might want to switch to a 0w30.

It is the same oil hence the w30 at operating temperatures, but flows much much better when cold.

Use any other filter other than Fram. WIX, Napa Gold, Hastings, AC Delco, Purolator etc....

This has been a well known cause of the ticking at start up with 4.3L engines. Solution is to install a proper oil filter with a high grade anti drainback valve. The fram oil filter has an excpeptionally poor design and the poor ADBV doesn't allow the oil to stay up in the top end of the motor and hence the dry start ups like that and the inherent ticking noise that is finally solved only the oil has reached the top end components after a couple of seconds.