add lucas engine oil treatment, it helps.
Oddly enough, a thinner (when cold) oil will have less of this problem since it will come to pressure, temperature, and circulate faster. It's a common problem with the Miata, the non-turbo 3000gt/Diamante engines and their hydraulic lash adjusters. They get loose or dirty and noisy over time, a thinner full synthetic helps by:
-Being thinner when cold, it pressurizes the system faster and the ticking goes away faster at startup
-Being thick enough*** you don't want too thick, it's bad!*** when warm (ie it's a 0W-30 vs 10W-30, when warm, they both are the same viscosity). Going too thin can sacrifice protection.
-Fully Syn (PAO based) oils transfer heat better so your engine warms up faster and dissipates excess heat via a cooler (if equipped) or the coolant more efficiently. Additives in oil perform better when at operating temperature, the faster your engine warms up, the better.
Mixing oils is NOT recommended because there are MANY way to refine oils, and different additives neutralize additives, resist breakdown, and alter viscosity using many different chemicals. If you are going extended drains and top-off with an oil that is built to only meet minimum specs, make sure to change your oil based on the lesser oil. IF you NEED to mix, keep to the same BRAND.
Other things that can be attempted and checked to address ticking at startup is:
-Oil filter, use a filter with an anti-drainbck valve. Oil that has passed the filter will be kept in the block/head and on engine start you won't be working to fill all those voids before lubricating the moving parts of your engine.
-Use a fully synthetic oil. Fully synthetic oils are more grabby (they're typically polar molecules) and will more effectively remove gunk from your engine.
-Clean your engine with a flush, make sure it's detergent and NOT solvent based, NOT pressurized, and NOT expensive. Two friends of mine have had success cleaning out grit and gime from their oiling system with a simple flush. Basically you get your car up to temperature, pour it in, idle for 15 minutes, and then change your oil. It's just like using a concentrated cleaner on something for a short period of time.
And, sorry to say, sometimes replacement is the answer. The Mitsubishi Diamante/3000gt engines above actually had new versions of the lash adjuster released with larger, better flowing oil ports:
And since the thread mentioned winter of course we all know:
-Start your car, watch the idle, when it starts dropping you can safely drive, and should. Engines under light load warm up much faster than those at idle. Rephrased: engines burning more gas generate more heat than those using the bare minimum.
-Go VERY easy until your temperature needle points to warm
-Don't have any fun until 3x longer than step 2 took, oil heats up slower than coolant and many cars temperature needles are glorified idiot lights (mine has a 50 degree dead spot).