Ticking noise only when cold - leaking gasket?

[macca]

Sorry for yet another post, I'm only 5 weeks into my first Chim and getting to understand her. A few days ago she started making a ticking noise when running from cold. A friend suspects this could be a leaking manifold gasket and early posts on this site seem to suggest the same. However, early posts describe the noise when excelerating or coming off the the throttle - this is not so for me. In my case, it's only while the engine is cold, once it gets to about 50 degrees the noise goes and she runs fine (I suspect this could be down to the manifold making a better seal after expansion from engine heat). Sound familiar to anyone?

[macca]

Not the oil, so I'm going to swing on a few bolts to see if that does the trick. One more question, are the manifold bolts torqued to a specific rate?

[macca]

Didn't get round to swinging on the bolts (you're right about some of them being hard to get to) but this morning the noise seems to have gone - maybe the damn good blast I had yesterday did the trick - probably welded the manifold to the engine. dhWilson, it was you that told me it mught be the gasket (remember, we spoke on the 'phone, know who I am?) I sent an email to you but no reply, did you get it? Are you nubbin as well?