valve rattle

[travisbconley]

I have a 2001 tahoe with the 5.3 liter. I notice when my wife cranks it up in the morning the first 5 to 10 seconds there is a noticable valve rattle. Anyone else experiencing this? Any advise?

[TGARST]

mine does it too, sometimes, changed to Mobil1 5-30 seemed to help
Tim 2003 Yukon 42K

[95silverado]

It's probably the piston slap problem. You should find lots of info on here about it, just do a search in any of the chevy truck forums.

[travisbconley]

I don't think it is pistno slap. It seems to be a tick from the top end. It sounds like a rocker or lifter. Also, it only lasts a couple of seconds.

[glenncof]

I notice that also on different truck. It sounds like lifters are oil starved. When I first start after oil change it lasts much longer until oil pressure builds.

Oil filter should have anti-drain back. Some racing filters may not have this.

[aero246]

The ticking is your lifters. The lifter are hydraulic and tick until they are pumped up full of oil, then no more click. You notice it longer when you change the oil b/c you have to have oil pressure to fill your lifter. The engine gets pressure first, then your lifters.
Hope this helps.

[ryderjames]

It's your piston moving from side to side in the cylinder, ask your local service manager at any chevy store they will tell you its normal. It feels reel good when you throw down 40k for a tahoe and realize that it knocks after about 9000 miles, even using synthetic oil. Mine has to warm up about 15 minutes before I will even pull it out of gear and sometimes it still knocks