Mercedes Benz repair: very very Important question:(, mercury sable, sorry for the confusion

Question
Hi my name's Justin. I know your not an expert in this but, My question is. I have a 1996 Mercury Sable Ls, with a 3.0 Duratec engine. When I crank it, all of a sudden you hear a slow clicking noise, that goes away when I press the throttle pretty hard. it's kinda like a slow chugging, and then click. Like Chug click. Like that. I'm sorry for the confusion. I'm fixing to take a road trip for about 700 miles and I don't know what it could be. It doesn't do it when it's warmed up. just when it's cold. Could it be come kind of vacuum loose? Or a distributor? Please Help. Thank you.

Answer
my first question would obvious be check your oil. it could be a belt tensioner issue. I usually work with chains and if it is a clicking then chances are it is your tensioner or your belt. Your distrib would have nothing to do with it since I dont think that a mecr has a distrib in that year but i could be wrong but if it was you would know your car would be misfiring and running crappy. It could be a loose vacuum connection but you would notice that on acceleration. Your best bet is do a compression check on your engine and go from there.. check your tailpipe for white/black/blue smoke and go from there ..but foremost if you start it up cold and you hear a clicking place your ear on the valve cover towards the front of the car depending how the merc engine is placed in the car.. then you either have tensioner , a belt problem or a sticky valve