[jeffcoslacker]

My '97 has always sounded like that. Ever since it was new. I have 118,000 on it now, it still runs great, oil control is good. It usually will start making noise just as it idles down after a cold start. Then the noise slowly quiets as it warms up. It is more noticeable in cold weather. Pretty much every one of these I've ever seen does that, so more than others, but the sound is always there.

I've found if I slowly raise the RPM's to about 2500 and slowly back down to idle, it quiets down considerably faster. If it was something beating itself to death like it sounds like, it would have failed long ago.

My neighbor has a brand new Trailblazer, I noticed it sounds like a can fulla rocks when it's cold too.