Just use a high quality oil filter, drain as much of the oil oil out as you can (what you do anyway), and just keep an extra close eye on the oil level on the first change). I converted both the 196,000 mile Prizm and the 125,000 mile engine in the Intrepid without issue, only improvement.
Couldn't agree more.
Yep, its lifter tick with the 3.x engines as well. I think there's actually a TSB on the 3.5s in the Pacifica for it, dunno about Intrepids. On cold days like its been lately (in the 20's), the tick is literally gone by the time the rpms drop to idle after you start it...so less than a second. When its in 45 or above there's no tick at all. Before when it was below 50 that tick would last until the engine fully achieved operating temp. Annoyed the crap out of me.
One of the keys besides superior lubrication is that oil filters like the Purolater PureOne and Royal Purple filters is that they have an Anti-drain Back Valve which keeps oil in the top end of the engine, so when you start the car oil is already there and not having to flow back into the top end, which of course is much better for the engine.
Yep that thread along with countless other posts about Frams being junk convinced me to never use Fram again. I used to buy Frams because I thought they were good...boy oh boy was I wrong. Never again.