Thanks for the insights...... I'm not mechanically inclined, so I wasn't sure if I needed to worry about anything.

 

I had the exact same symptom as well. However, it has only happened a few times.

On cold start, everything sounds ok. However, after everything warms up, I can hear the ticking at idle. Bringing the revs up to about 1100 or higher causes the tick to go away.

I normally don't drive my mustang in the winter. However, due to a minor problem with my other car, I had to drive my mustang a few times this winter. Each time I have heard the ticking noise, it has been -25C or colder. I am waiting for a warmer day to try and see if the noise still happens. Unfortunatly, the weather forcast says there won't be anything under -25 in the next 2 weeks, but once that happens, I'll post back.

 

+1 to this... I was thinking my throwout bearing was wearing out prematurely (and no I don't ride the clutch).

My '89 Stang's throwout bearing went bad at 40k miles, at that time Ford was using a bearing with plastic races that was utter crap. I had to pull the tranny and replace it with a nice Federal Mogul steel bearing.

What a PITA that was for that stupid bearing. I'm wondering if we have that issue again with the S197s?

 

I started up the Stang a few times in -5F to +20F ambient, and the engine compartment has a ticking noise. It's either the valvetrain or the injectors.

The rattling is still present and occurs only when the clutch is engaged with the flywheel. If the clutch is disengaged from the flywheel completely, the rattling goes away.

This is on a practically brand new Stang, so I documented everything in case I start to get paranoid 4 years later.

 

Start to get paranoid??