"brett" <account@cygen.com> wrote
> I have a '92 Honda Civic EX with 156k miles. It runs fine
and doesn't
> give me any problems. The oil was changed about 500 miles
back.
>
> I hear this very fast ticking noise on about the first
five blocks in
> the morning. Then it stops. It's coming from the motor
and some one
> else probably wouldn't notice unless I pointed it out.

Sounds like the valve lash (distance between rocker arms and
valve stems) is set a bit on the high end of the spec. This
is very common. It's better to be on the high end of the
spec than the low end--too small a clearance can cause valve
damage, IIRC. Googling will yield some discussion of this.

You hear it first thing because the valve parts are not
warmed up and so are relatively contracted. As they warm,
they expand, and that clearance reduces.

Check your manual's maintenance schedule for how often the
valve lash is supposed to be checked (and so possibly
adjusted). Though I ignored my 91 Civic's for 150k miles
(out of ignorance), then checked it. All was fine. But don't
do as I did. It is risky. Valve damage is expensive. I got
lucky.

> When I start the car, it idles at about 1500 RPMs. About
three or so
> minutes later, it is at around 1100 or 1000 around five
minutes. Now
> if I take off, I don't hear this noise.

I think that's because, when accelerating quickly while the
engine is still pretty cold, the higher RPM makes the
ticking harder to detect. The rate of valve opening and
closing will depend on RPM, after all.

> I imagine the noise is the
> engine turning at higher RPMs because the oil has not
heated up yet and
> it takes more effort to turn the cam. Once the motor
heats up,
> everything is well lubricated, hot and so it runs very
smooth. But
> what could this noise be?
>
> Also, do I actually need to wait until the car idles down
to 1100 RPMs
> each morning? I've read that about 30 seconds of warm up
time is just
> fine.

I've read the same. Only in the rare times the temperature
has been below 10 degrees F have I ran out and warmed up my
91 Civic for five-to-ten minutes. I don't know if that's
necessary, even in really cold weather.

My Civic is doing fine after 14 years and 172k miles, over
half of which were driven in the Northern U.S., with its
abysmally cold winters.