Faint tapping sound when cold

I have a 96 4.0 with 70k miles. When the engine is cold, and the window is down, you can hear a very faint tapping sound. Would this be piston slap? It goes away once it's been at operating temp for a little bit.

What can I do to cure it? It's pretty cold here in the winter, and awful hot in the summer, so I run Amsoil 5w40. I don't really want to switch to a heavier weight oil, but if this would be the cure I'll do it.

Any suggestions?

It might be your lifters tapping...I got used to mine a long time ago.

FWIW, try a little Seafoam in the oil right before an oil change. It sometimes helps. Heavier weight oil also helps...

I just recently switched to semi-syn and noticed that the noise is louder. :dunno:

Does it cause any long term damage?

If I remember correctly the owners manual talks about spark knock being normal under cold runs or extremely heavy loads. I'll have to go look it up again later.

.
Tapping is normal with higher mileage 4.0L engines, and sometimes with not so higher mileage ones too. I'm told it's the nature of the beast. I had people thinking my old '90 was a diesel.

.

That ticking is the heartbeat of your inline-6. Beat on baby, beat on .

that noise is like pain- as long as you feel it, your alive.
worry about it when it stops....(running)

the valvetrain make all kinds of racket- its in inline 6, all the junks on top, no way to deaden it. Enjoy it.