i know this is a little different from what every one else has said but maybe it is your secondary air pump it may have a bad bearing mine makes a little noise when you first started up and i thought it was comming from inside the head cover but when i was messing with my dv i had my wife start it and the noise was comming from the secondary air pump i took it out and put a little oil on the bearing and the noise went away.

i know this is a long shot i can't watch or listen to your audio clip or video im at work and we are not cool enough to watch videos.

 

My 2ndary air pump is alright, but the combi valve is noisy on a cold start, but that noise goes away after 2 mins when the air pump turns off. So you can imagine just how big of a pos my engine sounds in the morning [:@]

 

mine kinda sounded like a ticking tractor when i would first start it up expectly when it was cold

 

Cant sleep... Taking valve cover off...

 

that's hardcore. good luck man.

 

Its just loving your car!ALOT happens to the best of us!

Good Luck

 

Woof! Pretty good time! Pics coming up!
The bottom of the valve cover looks worse than anything else. Nothing looks abnormal in the valve train to me.








Sorry if the pics are giplantic.

 

Looks awefuly different than the pics found here: https://www.audiforums.com/m_61552/tm.htm
I wont need a vag specific oil pressure tester will I? It looks like I need to plug into 2 different spots???

I wonder if that noise is that black plastic shield/cap rattling around? Its pretty loose,nothing issecuring it, it just sits there on topof the cam shaft. Maybe the valve cover secures it when its on? Wtf is that even there for?

 

that plastic thing is right under the oil cap. I think it's supposed to stop oil from splashing out if you open the oil cap while the engine is running, but I could be mistaken.

that's a pretty clean looking head, how many miles on your car?

 

Duh. There are 92k on it! Im going to go try and find a oil pressure test kit.