I came across a beautiful 2002 LS 430 at the salvage auction yesterday and although it is listed as having less that 30,000 miles the engine sounded really bad on startup. Here's a video:
What's making all that noise?

 

Did you check the engine oil level? If I had to guess it's rod knock being that the frequency increases with the engine RPM, that's just a guess though.

 

Sounds like valve chatter. How long was it sitting? It might be an oil issue.

 

That's dead. I would plan on a new engine since valves if adjusted properly will not make that kind of noise even without oil

 

Rod knock. = needs new engine
My bet is that the 89 year old owner took it to jiffy lube and they forgot to put oil in it.

 

It sure would be fun to see someone kill one of these (3-UZ) with no oil.