Newbie question: Is your diesel more 'cackly' when cold apposed to warm?

[Pre95]

I swear when I fire my diesel off in the morning or when it's cold in general the cackle almost sounds like a rod knocking or something (enough that I have brought out the mechanic stethoscope, only to find it's coming from the valve cover area in general) but as it warms up it smooths out and becomes less of a distinctive knock, and more of the normal cackle. Am I going crazy or something?

[rabbitman]

It's normal for mine so I hope it's supposed to be normal

[Zulfiqar]

you may have a dying lifter if you are running a hydro head

[Pre95]

you may have a dying lifter if you are running a hydro head

How do I know if it's a hydro head?

[Zulfiqar]

there is usually a sticker on the valve cover with a cross on it meaning no settings required,

the other dead giveaway would be that the head would have a projected sections between cylinders 1 2 and 3 for hydraulic lifter head and only one projection for mechanical lifter head between cylinders 2 and 3

[DCC]

Checkout Tyler's post, you can see the differences between solid and hydro:
http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=16688.0

[jkmackenzie]

Yeah mine definitely does as well.  I've never really worried about it though, as I also thought it was normal.  Thanks for the info on hydraulic heads to guys.

[Rabbit TD]

you may have a dying lifter if you are running a hydro head

That's always been my objection to the hydraulic lifter engine, lifter problems, you hear so much about it on here all the time and I can't figure for the life of me why anyone wats to mess with them in the first place.

[jtanguay]

you may have a dying lifter if you are running a hydro head

That's always been my objection to the hydraulic lifter engine, lifter problems, you hear so much about it on here all the time and I can't figure for the life of me why anyone wats to mess with them in the first place.

very true.  i loved my '86 solid lifter 1.6TD.  sticky valves suck!  solid lifter engines also have a little bit more power too! now if only they didn't need as much maintenance...  maybe using royal purple with that Z Max stuff???