I have had 5 Buick 350s that tick on a startup and then silent after 2-5 seconds. I have had 5 Buick 350s that did not tick at all... They all had good oil pressure and never any issues with them except one that did not tick spun a bearing at about 7000 RPM LOL:TU:
YES!!! And it drives me nuts! I just had the motor rebuilt and apparently one of the lifters does not hold pressure as well as the others. The tick goes away as soon as oil pressure comes up, usually 2-5 seconds like you say.
Mine didn't until I switched from a fram oil filter to a wix... back to fram it was and nooo ticking, but there can be other causes...
I wouldn't call mine a tick, I'd call it a knock. Lasts about 1 second and goes away. The engine is a '72 with 57k miles. It was making the noise at 25k miles when I got the car.
I've owned 7 Buicks with 350s and none of them ticked. One of them was really tired, with a lot of miles too, but didn't tick or smoke.
Sounds a little backwards? The orange Frams don't have backflow prevention, Wix do. I run wix in mine. Its odd you had opposite results.