hey all, new to the board, tryin to figure out an issue im having. i just bought an '02 dakota 3.9, 5 speed truck with 100,000 miles to use as a work truck. the engine runs quiet as a mouse cold but as it reaches running temp it starts with a ticking noise. the truck is super clean but i know nothin about how the truckwas maintained. I drove it a couple weeks with it like this and got around to changing the oil. i used castrol 10w30 and replaced the filter with a decent filter and the tick noise went away totally for about the first 500 or so miles cold or running temp. i mean completley and this was a pretty loud tick when warmed up. but then it started back slowly and now is the same as it was. any ideas? after i did the oil change and it stopped i had thought maybe it had somethin to with the old oil that was in it, but i guess not. my first thought was piston slap or rod or main bearin, then thought probably just a sticky lifter but im not sure what to think now. i figured i leave it to the dakota gurus. TIA

 

sounds like a sticky lifter. I would use put some lucas in it and that should help it out.