You should hear niether. A lifter noise will be a little higher piched and lower in volume. When you have been arround MB's enough you get to know the differnce. Also usually lifter noises take a long time to go away after startup if they ever go away. 1 or 2 seconds sounds much more like a chain.

Another way to tell a stretched chain is by how far the cam timing reference marks are off by with the engine at #1 TDC. This should only be done by rotating the engine to TDC in the direction of engine rotation only. If you over shoot TDC, then rotate the engine backward enough to get the cams to rotate backward slightly and aproach TDC in the direction of engine rotation agian without overshooting. Please note that as you apprach TDC the engine wants to overshoot as the crank goes overcenter, so you have to go slow allowing compression to relieve etc.

John Roncallo