Now a LONG time ago I said that I had a tick. And it went away. And well. Now its back. It does go away after running the car for about 10+ minutes...is this a normal amount of time or do I have some oil circulation problems?

I will get a vid of this soon. It is LOUD. I mean L O U D.

That'* the time it takes to pump back up with oil. It'* not a good sign that it'* leaking down to begin with.

Depending on how long you plan on keeping the car, will dictate if you fix it or not.

I should have specified. It only happens if the car has been sitting for 8-10+ hours... So its taking a bit of time to leak back down.

But I remember someone dropping their oil pan on an LN3 and finding that the oil pickup was mostly clogged? Could that be a possible issue here?

That could be if you are having an oil pressure issue. However the way you describe it.. that would point to a bad lifter.

Well since my oil gauge is all funky, I couldn't tell you with any degree of accuracy.

A bad lifter...so that would basically require a top end overhaul...hmm. nice.

Ok, so say it is a bad lifter. Then why would the ticking go away as soon as the oil warms up.

Because this only seems to happen in cold temperatures. It did it last winter now that I think of it and went away in the summer. And I thought it just went away. So because this tempurature change seems to be the enabler of this noise..then would it lean more towards an oil circulation issue?

I will be replacing my oil pressure sender as soon as my wallet is refilled and then we can really get a good idea of what this might be.

The oil doesn't only warm up.

After start up..oil pumps throughout the motor. Including into the lifter that has somehow lost the oil usually stored in it. As the oil fills the lifter back up.. the noise goes away.

Ok, I understand now. So you're saying this bad/faulty lifter is deemed bad because its not holding the oil it should?

I don't understand why it is not ticking in the summer though.

Less space... cold weather makes parts contract a little more. That small amount of clearance could be doing it. Or it could be getting worse.

Well I do know that it didn't do this when I bought the car.

It started doing this in Winter 05/06 just after I overheated it to the point where it was preigniting and killed my MAF sensor.

It does not seem to be getting much worse than it was last year but if the lifter completely failed is there any possibility for valve damage to occur?

I don't yet know EVERYTHING about engines, but then again, thats why I'm not a gearhead. Sorry if I sound a bit stupid asking numerous questions about this.