Well tomorrow will be "strike 3" then I'll be taking it in. I'll just demand a new motor, maybe offer to pay the difference for the HO. The ticking doesn't bother me too much, neons have been doing it for hundreds of thousands of miles. But they'll throw some new parts at it, fresh new parts are ok with me. If they pull cams out, I'll have them put HO cams back in.

I'll bring the digicam out tomorrow and record it too, its the same noise as your's.

 

I can just barely hear it in my 4.7 HO. Hope it doent get louder over time.

 

Follow Up: I picked up my Dakota on Wednesday. Their "Lead Technician" listened to it. Of course, he didn't any noise. Then the Service Manager went out and they both listened to it. The response was that it isnormal. I got so mad I couldn't speak. Just asked for my truck back and left.I can't afford to lose anymore work over this lemon. I have had transmission problems, the base coat paint bubbled up under the clear coat on the hood and had to be repainted, the parking brake doesn't work properly, and of course I have the startup noise. So like I said in my original post, I'm shopping for a new or newer vehicle. I'm upside down on this thing, but I just don't want to pay for a POS any longer. If you guys on this forum keep yours, then I wish all the luck in the world.

 

I took the truck out and made a couple 1/4 passes and a top end run and I haven't had a noise since.