LOUD valve train noise, worried?

[SpoolinUpGN]

Yesterday, the battery randomly died in my GN. Since it didn't die sort of progressively and nobody could jump it, i tried turning it over about 50 times before i put in a new battery today. I went thru checking the positive terminal, the wires, the relays, etc.

Once the new battery was in, the car started immediately, blew some white smoke, ran choppy, and made the loudest ticking noise i've ever heard from the car. I shut it off, then started it again. Some more white smoke and some choppiniess fell into a more normal idle after about 30 seconds... but the ticking noise coming from the engine didn't stop. I'm guessing its valvetrain noise, since it just didn't have the same knocking sound my buddy's '87 camaro had when it had a spun bearing. I drove it back to my house from where i worked (~10 min), popped the hood, and the noise is almost gone, much fainter than before. Is any of this normal? Just want to stay on top of things since it is my daily driver until college starts back up in September

oh and the car does have 99,6xx miles and LT1 valve springs in case that helps.

Thanks for any input guys

 

[87GNSteve]

The lifters probably bleed out. The 50 times you tried to start it were the last 5-10 times really weak?
With the weak battery you probably kept turning the engine real slow and getting 1/ 4 rotations without getting oil to the lifters. All the oil was pumped out and your start up was noisy until they pumped up again.