Hi a couple things.. exhaust manifold gaskets can make a ticking sound just like lifters.. check that.. is it full of oil? put a mechanical gage on it and see what kind of pressure you have from the oil pump. the rule of thumb is 10 lbs for evey 1,000 rpm's. so as long as there is 10 lbs oil pressure at idle oil pump should be good. you can also rev it to see that the pressure comes up.

a bad belt and or tensioner can make some weird noises so do the belt check by unhooking it..

good luck

tim

It will not be the oil pump or all the lifters would be knocking along with rod bearings. The ticking could be all coming from the tensioner. I'd remove the belt and run the engine for a minute to see if the noise is there or not.

no not your oil pump, & the tension-er, it probably just need's one.

You could try using one notch higher octane to see it that solves it.

I have a 2006 F 150 5.4 King Ranch my engine started taking the lifters started knocking a mechanic told me that I needed to replace are lifters and tensioner belt I want to know what the tensioner belt has to do with my lifters knocking and can it possibly be my oil pump that is not pumping enough oil for the lifters to pump up