Evil squeeks, rattles, and clanks! Help!

Over the last few week my car has developed a few new rattles and clicks that range from mildly unsettling to maddening. The first is more unnerving that anything else, and is very recent. Basically upon startup when the engines coldit will start right up I will hear this rapid clicking noise from the engine bay. It will click 10 times or so then fade away, not to be heard again until the next time I start it up cold. I can't seem to lock down where its coming from.

The second one is the maddening one. At first I thought it was engine pinging, and i haven't ruled it out, but its hard to know what the pinging could be coming from. The engine has stock compression, is running at about 12 degrees BTDC and has nothing aggressive done to the engine. Its also running in a pretty decent state of tune. So thats why I have ruled out pinging, for the time being. It may just be an exhaust rattle of some sort. Its a loud, high pitched rattle that only occurs in the upper rpms and when I get on it. It *seemed* to happen more under load, but it also happens when I'm on flat roads and while goind downhill as well. It sounds like its coming from the area where the motor meets the transmission, but its hard to isolate since I only hear it while driving (haven't been able to get it to happen while sitting in the garage and revving it, yet). It also seems to reflect off walls and such... when I drive next a wall on my left, the sound will seem to come predominantly from my left, etc.

Any ideas? While I'm certainly okay with most rattles and such, both these sounds have me a bit concerned...

i had a feeling it might have something to do with a lifter... should i be worried... and how hard would it be to fix?

edit: also, any ideas how i can identify which lifter it is? the noise doesn't give me enough time to locate it with hearing...

any other ideas?

tranny fluid? what type, automatic or manual? how much? should I just throw it in the oil? what are the risks? and anyone know if that or the mystery fluid actually works?

mustangdave said:

Those methods may cover up the noise for awhile, but it sounds like you need to replace some parts in your valvetrain.
On a side not, do you have those wire spoke wheels? If you do, that clicking you hear when driving next to walls on the drivers side may just be a loose or broken spoke. You could also have a loose tab that holds the cover on. If you could drive along a bridge or othet wall and vary your speed from idle up, you would know if it's speed related.

Click to expand...

I really shouldn't be having drivetrain problems... i just bought the engine rebuilt a year ago. Boo. And my wheels are stock, but they arne't wirespoked, they are the wheel covers. The problem (the high pitched rattle) definitely seems to be rpm related.. occuring when the engine is pushed in any gear to high rpms.