It's hard to convey the sound you're hearing through your text description. Try posting a video with the noise if you can. If it was a knock it's likely that you would have known already. A knock is more of a deep thud than a ticking noise. Could be valves, injector tick, forged internal noise, etc. I can say that it's possible to hear noise from forged internals even after the vehicle is warmed up. It depends on your piston-to-wall clearance. If it was built really loose then you'll likely always hear it. Anything over or around .004 PTW is usually fairly noisy especially if the pistons have a short, non-coated skirt.

 

 

From what I could hear(which wasn't much) it sounded like detonation. Sounded like more of a high pitch pinging than knocking or tapping. Hopefully someone else will chime in if their ears heard something else. Has the car been tuned? I would pull the plugs and check for signs of detonation first.

 

 

You said the engine was built though. What's the compression? Too much ignition timing relative to the compression ratio will have disastrous results regardless of air fuel ratio.

 

 

Maybe that'll fix it. Post back with results.

 

 

This is what it sounds like once warmed up and most of the Boise went away already. After driving a little it comes and goes a little as wel

 

1. Sounds like your rings were gapped too lose
2. Valvetrain can also cause ticking under certain situations, but based on what you describe it sounds like the rings. And no, it's not normal or necessarily "ok" for a built engine to tick like that.
3. I couldn't get the sound to work in the video. I saw someone mentioned detonation - this typically will sound almost like aluminum foil being crumpled from the engine bay. It has a rather distinct noise. Almost always caused by pre ignition, too much timing.
4. It sounds like you need a tune, which I would recommend ASAP.