2000 Gagt Engine Noise

Hay guys i have a question that im sure has been asked before but i cant seem to find a decent answer. I believe what im hearing is lifter noise but im not sure. It did it a few times before but seems to be worse. Its fairly loud on a cold start. IT used to go away after warm up but is seem to be getting more and more consistant. Now when it warms up it gets quieter but still present. The funny thing is when its warm and you let it idle, the sound gets faint. When you drive it or hold your foot on the gas it gets louder then when back at idle it goes away. I dunno if its a lifter collapsing when the engine is revved then pumping up again at idle or what. I have even thought about an injecter snapping but i am unsure what that sounds like. I have read other forums that say it may be piston slap but i highly doubt thats what is is.Also i almost forgot..there has been times where it would mack the ticking sound and i shut the car off and restarted and the sound went away..weird huh? any help would be awsome in diagnosing this before i replace lifters and it not be them. thanks gentlemen

Welcome to AF. From our desks, of course, noises are impossible to diagnose. Pull the valve covers off if you think it is in the valve train and feel the rocker arms at idle, if the ticking is in one of them you can feel it, be careful of course. Not mentioned, but this is a 3.1/3.4? Also make sure it is not an exhaust leak, this has fooled a lot of folks as it can sound like a valve, especially when revving the engine. All guess work from here.

sorry about that its a 3.4 v6. i know noise diag is impossible from a desk. i was hopeing the simptoms i described would help differentiate from the 3 types of noise makers. ive never heard of a lifter kind of go in and out at random. nor have i heard of shutting down the engine then restarting it have an effect on valve train. it is kinda hard to determin between the two types for me because i dont know what a snappy injecter sounds like.i am pretty good with carbed 8 cyl engines but this efi v 6 stuff is alot different. thanks for your time.

when ever my 3.4s do this I check the oil, and its usually low , just my :2cents: