My sons 97 with the 5.4L makes quite the racket on a cold start up. I do have fresh oil and a motorcraft filter. Noise lasts about 5 seconds or so. After that its fine.
My first thought was the oil drained back to the pan. Mabe a bad check valve in the filter?
Its got 235,000 miles. Haven't owned it very long. Runs great, othrwise. It was a company truck. Mostly had one driver,and highway miles. They kept it up very good.
Any thoughts?? Oh yea, its been around 20 Degrees.

 

What type of sound? Could be the common IAC or ???

 

My truck is pretty noisey on start-up but I have always attributed it to the clutched fan winding up. It goes away in about five seconds. Pop the hood and take a gander... It's kind of a "fluid running/pouring" noise during those five seconds but like I said I have always attributed it to the fan winding up.

 

Not an IAC noise. The fan could be the culprit. I'll try to take a gander under the hood this evening and try to pinpoint it during a cold startup.

 

Mines a 97 with the 4.6. It makes the same sound surfjunkie described. It use to annoy me especially cause I thought something was really wrong, but I got used to it. It only happens on those really cold days.