My Winter Upgrades

[Halon]

Well I decided to park the Talon after lunch today and drive the Saab back to work. On the way to lunch, I heard a ticking sound. The car has always ticked slightly upon warm-up, even before the rebuild happened. I've always considered it to be cold start piston slap due to the forged pistons and the material Mahle uses. This ticking today did get quieter after the engine warmed up, but didn't go away fully. I have about 250 miles on the motor so far since the rebuild.

I've never heard what rod knock sounds like, but I figured to be safe I'll just shut her down and start doing some investigating. Tonight I plan on pulling the valve cover to see if a rocker has fallen off. Also I'd like to check to see if the lifters are still good, but I guess I don't exactly know how to tell if one is bad (unless it has real obvious physical damage). Any advice? Anyone local who is more of an expert in this area, willing to stop by and listen to the ticking and give me their .02 cents?

One other thing I did notice in my quick 10 minutes of lunch time troubleshooting, is that there really isn't much tick when you free rev, or just cruise down the highway. But when you get on it, that's when you can begin to hear the ticking...

Worst case I suppose would be rod knock/spun bearing. I really have never heard a car with rod knock, so I have no clue. I guess I'm just preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best, all a guy can do eh..