Okay heres the story as he told me.
When he starts his 97 Tracker (16v) it tickin til it warms up and then it goes away.
He uses Fram filter (I told him to change that to Wix/Napa Gold)
10/40 Ams oil, Says you don't need to change it for 10k miles
He was told it could be piston slap or rockers knockin.
Any guesses or personal experience.
Update. He's using 5/40 Ams Oil.

Well, if the person you're talking about goes 10k miles between oil changes and uses Fram filters, I would only see bad things in store for that engine :-x

I use'd ams oil in my tracker for close to 30k and just changed filters. That stuff is manditory for small aircraft and last up to 6months. Read up on it. It's great stuff. if you could see what kind of R's my tracker saw you'd swear by it. Lets just say it liked the rev limiter. I'd suggest changing to a wix and sticking with the Am's.ftp://http://www.amsoil.com/

It's piston slap, no worries, the Turbo
SideKick does it even when warm, but
it's worse when cold, best thing is to
warm the engine before driving, or just
drive it very easy until warm, no revs
over 2000 RPM until warm (120*) or just
as the needle lifts out of cold range

Wild

Could it be too much of a rocker/valve gap when cold and then a little closer to spec when warm?

How often are you supposed to adjust the valves on a 16v?

no ..... its piston slap  

no ..... its piston slap  

That's pistons and valve hitting each other, right?

Why is that so common?

Is it from cam/crank timing problems?  from worn valve springs?

That's pistons and valve hitting each other, right?

Why is that so common?

Is it from cam/crank timing problems?  from worn valve springs?

No Piston slap is when the piston wares and becomes loose in the bore.  (usually in teh area of the skirts)  This slap can adventually lead toma cracked or skirted piston.  Driven carefully like Wild mentioned the Tracker can be driven in this condition for years.  Most Sammy's (Due to age and ware) I hear running display this Piston slap.   Some much worse then others.  

Use it until you find a deal on a better motor and then sell the slapping one to some one to use in a dead trail rig.  That Slappin motor would go sweet in a $50 Sammy.

Sounds like you have more of a nuisance than a problem there HotRod, unless the knocking gets louder, or persists, then it's time to worry.  I'm not one to buy into "specialty oils" but I have to recommend to you Valvoline MaxLife.  I didn't believe in the stuff myself at first, but I've had a bunch of old beaters that were helped by that oil and that oil only.  In a few cases, that was the only oil that would keep oil pressure in the motor when even gear oil wouldn't.  I guess it freshens up seals and clings to the parts better.  I would try a heaver oil like a 40 weight(somethingW40).  But, it does sound like a problem of oil not getting to the TOP of the motor, so if that doesn't work, try a lighter weight.  If it gets worse or none of that helps this is a similar problem to the 8cyls in some GM trucks.  A few guys pissed and moaned so much that they developed an oil filter with a pressure releif valve to keep the oil on top of the motor after shut off.  I don't feel it's necessary, they just did it so those guys would shut the fu*k up. It is out there if they make it in your filter size, it might help.  Good luck man

No Piston slap is when the piston wares and becomes loose in the bore.

YIKES

Wouldn't that be burning a lot of oil and eventually gouging the cylinder walls?  I would think the piston could even bind in the cylinder if it got too much out of position; that'd be a mess!

Is it because of bad factory rings or something?  How many miles does that usually occur at?

My friends rig has 80k miles on it and he's a hard driver. He also has adjusted the valves and I think they might be still off. as I recalled he adjusted them all to .006. Don't quote me on that. Right now he's in N,Cal.
The Haynes book says:
Cold .005 to .007
Hot  .007 to .008

Thanks for all your info, He should be checking here soon.

Update. He's using 5/40 Ams Oil.

whitfield wrote:
Wouldn't that be burning a lot of oil and eventually gouging the cylinder walls?  I would think the
    piston could even bind in the cylinder if it got too much out of position; that'd be a mess!

LOL, no it's not that much extra wear, but a couple of thousands
could cause the noise, I noticed mine doing it at about 100K Miles
when it was cold, that was 170,000 miles ago   so as you can see
the motor can run a long time in this condition, I did a rebuild at 240,000
miles, and used the old pistons, we used to use old pistons all the
time in auto shop and the motors were fine, but a 4 cyl and the miles
have added up and taken their toll on the pistons, so next time I
think I'm going to some low compression, over bore pistons.

Drive her nice and change the oil every 3-5K miles and
she will be a happy ticker for a long time to come

Wild

   I've had piston slap for about 45K miles.  Mine had it when I bought it with 54K miles on it.