mtnman82

Thanks gruhsy. The more I think about it, the more I believe it is the lifters - it did sound like a cold diesel engine. I should have some time tonight to let it warm up. Hopefully that's it and then I can finish getting ready for smog testing...

gruhsy

You could try some Sea Foam in your engine. Run it for a bit then dump the oil and put new oil in. I've used the stuff before in my other cars...Honda's in the past. I would have tried it on my 2.5 but as I said I pulled it and put in a 3.0L

https://seafoamsales.com/sea-foam-motor-treatment/

mtnman82

The super loud rattling went away after about a minute, but there was still some rattling coming from the cam tower. I let it idle up to operating temp, then held it at 3000rpm for a minute or so and when I lifted all was quite. Yea!!! Thanks for the insight everyone! Now on to prepping for CA smog test...

V2Rocket

drained out lifters make an ungodly racket.

glad you got it running again...good luck on smog.

mtnman82

Thanks Spencer!