Someone asked where they could find the video I mentioned in my original post. Here's a link to the video. It's very infomative.
http://www.cpaclubgp.com/misc/lim-gasket.html
Just an update to my original post.
I originally had a very bad lifter noise and my car would run like crap for a couple of minutes until the lifter quieted down. I added a full quart of Rislone to my oil and ran it for about a week. This seemed to quiet the lifter down somewhat but it didn't completely get rid of the problem. After a week, I changed the oil, put in Castrol GTX 10-30 plus one half quart of Lucas oil treatment. Oh, changed the filter to AC/Delco too. This has dramatically reduced the noise now to just a little rattle on startup for a few seconds and then quiet. (well, at least quiet for a 3.8L....LOL !!). I am going to run it for a while to see if the lifter noise comes back. If so, then I guess I am going to have to do the whole lifter changeout.
Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate it.
