[The Fixer]

Well said Scott! For the OP, if you're not totally comfortable doing it yourself, take Tim up on the offer of having him help you out. He's a good guy and knows his way around a car. Watching and learning, or having someone that knows how to do it point you in the right direction and you doing the job is a great experience. You won't learn how to rebuild an engine and trans overnight, but there's nothing wrong with getting your feet wet by changing a starter and a window motor. After that, you can learn how to do brakes, oil changes, and move up the difficulty scale as you get confident and build up a tool collection.

I'll also throw this out there. If your motor makes a tapping noise at idle, and goes away once you're under the throttle, it might also be the injectors. 13-year old high-mileage injectors ~can~ make a racket, and tick just like a loose rocker arm. That's just something else to check out.