2002 escape revs at startup

Hi. Daughter has a 2002 Escape. It seems to rev very high on cold startups. You know--the kind of rev where you here metal on metal before the oil gets pumped through. Is it hard to set the rpms on these?? Or what could the problem be? Thanks Dguy

The problem could be oil related and not the starting rpm's. If your Escape has a tach, and you can find another similar Escape with a tach that doesn't make all the noise yours does, then start them both and see how they rev. As the engine gets older, the oil pump wears down and takes longer to get the suction going to send the initial flow of oil up to the valve train. The result is a lot of noise until the oil gets there. Clogged oil channels or oil filter can also contribute to the problem, not to mention the oil pickup tube and its screen.