Originally Posted by OneLovelyZee

The problem went away after a week with my Z, bro. I'm thinking about gonig back to dino oil because it seems as if I'm losing 1/3 of a quart every 1,000.

Originally Posted by DaveJackson

Valve ticking is a weird thing. Sometimes it's from switching to a thinner oil and occasionally it's from a thicker oil. With other cars, I've had success with something called GM Oil Additive. I have no idea if it'll work in your case but it might be worth a shot. I think only GM dealerships sell it.
Overall, faint valve tick is nothing to panic about, so don't worry too much, there. It's time to learn how to change your own oil and do it far less often since you're using synthetic. Many will argue with me, but when synthetics first came out, one of their claims to fame was that they lasted way longer. That has since been removed from the packaging as they found folks still liked changing oil every 3k miles. I believe AMS still brags that theirs lasts super long and I personally believe that all synthetics do.
As with all things related to oil, it's little more than personal opinion based on how they are marketed with their elusive, vague "facts". It's coming to a point, (ImO), where consumers are damaging their precious vehicles by excessively changing their oil, switching brands and grades and screwing something up during the procedure that accidentally causes damage. A simple cross threaded plug or double gasket on a filter leads to catastrophic damage when the bloody oil they were changing out was fine to begin with.
The final, snotty advice is if you can't afford another $50, you picked the wrong car.