I Know, I know, but believe me, I have used the search tool.

I just bought a 99 3.0 2wd XLT that has a engine tick. I got a decent deal as the guy needed the money and didn't know what the noise was. It sounded like lifters so I paid up and...

-Bought a bottle of "lifter medic" and put it in.

-Seafoamed it then changed the oil.

-Ran engine flush through and changed the oil again, this time using 5w20 with a quart of lucas.

Neither did anything to the ticking so last night I pulled the passenger valve cover since the noise sounds like it is from that area. Everything looked fine and with a stethoscope no one was louder than others. Since I've never heard of all six on a bank going bad I began to fear low oil pressure possibly once I found out about the Ford "dummy" pressure gauge!

I got a mechanical one and put it on just to check and 20 psi or so idle and 40-50 at 3500 rpm or so.

The ticking sounds like lifters but no specific one. It is there on start up and it gets worse with load and heat. Sometimes at idle if there is no load it almost goes away. With revs it is always there.

Does anyone have any ideas??? The racket is making me sick and driving me mad.

Am I missing someting, I hope to hell somebody here has some ideas as I am fresh out.

 

did you ever figure this ticking noise out i have a similar issue.

 

The OP has only this one post and hasn't been here since 2009.

Make a YouTube video and post the link here, that would be the most help.

If it's a lifter, then replace them all, but first, change your oil to synthetic, especially if you do short runs and like to warm up your truck in the drive way for 20 minutes.
You want nice clean oil in the new lifters.

The ticking in my engine was caused by two things, a bent connecting rod just striking the underside of the piston and the idler shaft in the oil pump somehow worked it's way up and was hitting the crank.
The bent connecting rod I did by hydro locking my engine with Sea Foam, no one knows about the idler shaft.

Sometimes ticking can be coming from the front end.
Note when it's the most pronounced, cold or fully warmed up.
Remove the fan belt, but don't run the engine for more then 30 seconds, you will have no water pump.

If the ticking stops, then you have a place to start _ most likely a bearing or the clutch in the cooling fan.

Other things like a loose rocker arm, or bent push rod...
A noisy injector...

 

I don't remember the 3.0 Ford rangers have a timing belt or timing chain. But if it has a timing chain I know timing chains tend to get loose overtime. And wonder maybe if it is timing chain slap causing the ticking sound. I have 160k miles on my 3.0 ranger and it makes a slight ticking sound too. I haven't really thought too much about it cuz it doesn't seem like it's a problem.

 

The 3 litre Vulcan has a timing chain with no guides or tensioner(s), if there was any noise coming from it, it would be because it was loose, but I don't think that would cause a ticking sound.
What about an exhaust manifold leak ?