Maybe I'm just paranoid but do these engines have a bit of "chatter" when their cold or first started in the morning? Mines a '98 with the 2.5 and it sounds like valvetrain chatter when I first start it. Idle seems fine but if you poke the throttle it likes to talk when the rpm is coming back down, chatter chatter chatter. then this morning I noticed it slightly at plain idle. I THOUGHT I noticed this initially after I changed my oil and filter a few months back but I could just be getting paranoid and worrying. Is this normal for these engines to "talk" a little bit or may I have a bigger issue? Once it warms up it's just fine, idle, or revving it and letting it come down, there's no chatter or noise at all(besides that powerhouse 2.5).

 

nothing??

 

Does anybody know where the oil pump is at on this thing? I THOUGHT the 2.3's were bolted on the front of the engine externally, but are the 2.5's the same way or is my 2.5 in the pan? I've got a cheap driveworks oil filter on it now so i'll be changing this with Castrol 5w30 and a motorcraft filter this weekend....

 

My 2.3 chatters like that if I use any filter but a motocraft.