My 2003 Chevy Venture has an engine problem. It

The small block Chevy engines commonly wear down and break rocker arms. The chirping is caused by a lack of oil between the rocker arm and ball.

if the car has alot of miles on it , a little bit of top engine noise is nothing to worry about. if the car does'nt have alot of miles on it or the noise is real loud then you may have a lose valve or need rocker arm ajustment.

The shorter pushrods go on the rocker arms that are closer to the intake side of the head, the longer ones go on the rocker arms closer to the exhaust side of the head. The camshaft is dead center in the engine, the further away from the cam the rocker arm is, the longer the pushrod needs to be.

I HAVE SAME JEEP SAME PROBLEM...I have found out after research that all these jeeps like yours and mine have a common problem with engine clogging and the valves sticking and the rocker arms coming off.....This is true I pulled my valve cover off and the rocker arm had come off because the valve was stuck ....Pressure between the rocker and the cam and the valve is the only thing that will keep the rockers from falling off......And when the valve starts to stick the rocker falls off.....This is sad but true.....Also it is badly clogged with black chuncks of burnt oil....I dont know what causes this other than the wrong weight oil....but I only used the wrong oil maybe 2 times...
There should be a recall on these because the rocker arms shouldnt come off.....I think the rockers are wrong from the factory....I am a level 2 chrysler tech.and also ASE certified.......It makes me angry that they built these so weak !! ....All you can do is remove the heads and have a complete valve job done and clean the oil pick-up tube in the oil pan as well....then a complete engine flush..
.....ONLY use 5w20 weight oil also........If you dont have the cash dont tear it down cause I almost guarantee you have the same problem as I.............Hope this helps.................Metalpoet

Most likely it is the rockers tapping the lifters. the crankcase has only leftover oil in it at the start, and has to wait for the oil pump to get it there.
I would add a stablizer to your oil...like LUCAS. It may help a bit with a cold engine.
If the knocking is in the piston, then you should see some indication on the spark plugs...like oil or blow-by build up.

I presume that you are connecting your Intake manifold to the cylinder head after replacing your intake gasket, if so they are 30ft lbs, and 360 in pounds. Hope that helps

You have a Lifter and Rocker Arm Tapping. You will need to Take off the Valve Covers and Listen for the Tap. When you Locate it Tighten Down Until it stops and then Back it off 1/8 of a Turn.

Well you don't say what engine it has. I just had to put a helicoil in the head of a 3.4L 'cuz it had pulled the threads out of rocker arm bolt hole for cyl. #3. Car ran great afterward.

Torque: 210 @ 4000 rpm

rockers tap rods knock pistons double knock