Ok, so I bought a 2005 S4 Cabriolet in December. It was a one owner, well maintained car with approx 135k miles. The dealer I bought it from had the timing chain guides replaced prior to me purchasing it. Moving on to the problem, the engine started making a ticking noise similar to the cold start tick but it didn't go away a few seconds after running. I took it to the dealer to have them tell me exactly what is wrong. They basically said its a lifter making noise but can't say for sure whats casing the lifter noise without opening the engine up. Being the diy'er I am and willing to take on a challenge it dig in to replace the oil check valves. When I got the old ones out I see there is a piece of silicone (i think its rtv like the oil pan gasket) stuck to the check valve holding it open. I get the new check valves in place and I change the oil and filter and find more of these strings of sealant on the filter and in the oil. I could actively see where the sealant was used when the shop did the timing guides instead of replacing the seals like around the oil filter housing and intake gasket. If course buying the ECS check valve kit, i painstakingly removed all the silicone being careful to not scratch any of the metal and replaced with the proper gaskets. I get everything bolted up no problem, Start the car up and it is making the same noise with no change. There's no CEL or anything like that, runs just fine just making a lot of noise. The noise is only coming from the driver side heads.

I'm thinking there's a piece of silicone stuck in the oil gallies that supply the pressure to the lifters, so I'm mentally preparing myself for pulling the engine out to take the head apart. Is my thinking along the right track? Anything else that could cause the engine to tick like this? As of right now, the car sits in my garage until i can fix it because I don't want to blow the engine or something. Luckily the s4 is a second vehicle for me but i hate making payments on a car I can't drive.