Ticking knocking noise when at idle 97 ultra goes away in nuetral and park

the ticking noise usually points to a lifter or lifters sticking, they bleed down when sitting for a while.
some times an oil flush might do the trick , or change the lifters?
good luck

Hey Kimberly... First... is the noise a high pitched ticking or a lower pitched knocking or clunking?? ...this is IMPORTANT>>
Reply to me on here..please...

Try to adjust all valve clearance to specs...

Usually a sign of needing an oil change. My Dodge Dakota does the same thing, when I change the oil it goes away. Every couple of oil changes I use kerosene to clean out the gunk, just put kerosene in place of the oil, let the motor run for a minute then drain, replace the oil filter, and fill with oil, then you're good to go.

Its kinda hard the say from what you have said but it could be whats called a u joint there is one on each end of the drive shaft they allow the drive shaft to move with the suspension but if the vehicle was in gear you could hear a knocking or cluncking noise because its hooked derrictly to the transmission

after oil change' check oil pressure cold and then hot , then idle, if it goes up when reving it hot, thats good sort of,then if it goes way to low at idle and knocks, check idle speed. Fix it if so, still there , in the old days we would be cheap and put in a high flow oil pump, now I drive the "siht" out of a cheap car to see how long they last! It will supruse you> seen a 97 lumina with 400,000 km. slight knock and still going.

If the s/c is making a knocking noise that goes away when the throttle is pushed, you could have a coupling problem. Remove the s/c belt, grab the pulley and quickly twist the pulley back and forth from the 10 to 2 positions. There should not be a clunking noise and slowly moving the pulley you should feel a drag while the rotors move, no drag immediately means the coupling is bad.

Usually a ticking from the engine is caused by oil not coating the tappets. Tappets are the rods that control the intake and exhaust valves. Once the engine warms up oil is circulated to those parts and the ticking stops.
Mopar is famous for that

The sound you are hearing is an exhaust leak. Sounds like a ticking noise, goes away when driving, but can be heard when sitting. You probably have a bad manifold gasket, or loose clamp or broken weld on exhaust. Best way to tell is start it up and listen as to find leak. Or take to a muffler shop and have them repair it.

how is the oil level and pressure?, how many miles on engine? is this a loud knock or rather a clatter/ticking noise? knock is engine rod or crankshaft bearings, clatter loud ticking is valve follower noise. how long before it (the noise) goes away?