[Sparky1349]

Hey,

Common this time of year when you get a quick warm up and everything is cld that moisture can condense on the ignition system and cause no start, hard start, poor drivability, etc..... 2 friends just had the same problems - clean plugs, dry distributor cap, spray wires with WD40 then cranked engine with throttle wide open and engine started right up. If your sure that the distributor cap was the problem you may want to replace it, once there has been a cross fire in the cap it leaves a minute carbon track on the surface of the cap, this can lead to miss fires in the future.

The clicking (or ticking noise) is likely lifter noise due to sludge in the lifters causing one or more to bleed down while engine is off. There are several other threads with this issue. I had the issue with '02 Blazer (4.3L) about 5 months ago (happened about 4-5 times over 2 week time frame). Used SeaFoam in the crankcase and it hasn't come back.

Sparky