The smoke appears white from the rear view mirrow, but looking at it with a white sheet under it, it has a faint blueish grey color. I am pretty sure it is burning oil, and this is a lot of smoke, not jst a little from not having a cat. It is also weird that it came the same day I heard the tapping.

 

hm. i didnt get a chance to listen to the clip but my car was making a ticking sound that sounded like it was valves. so i took it to my local stealership and they said its vavles!!! so i decide to wait a little bit cause all the threads i read say gasoline, oil, compression, valves, etc. so i checked my oil and sure enough i was low on oil. topped it off and the sound is now gone. try checking the oil. do you drive it somewhat hard? where do you shift in normal driving?

 

I topped up the oil yesterday, and after driving it was down 1/8quart. The sound only appeared later in the driving, and got louder as the engine got hotter.

 

Folex your compression results look ok to me... do an inspection of your valve clearances.

 

old thread.