Noticed my car developed a tick coming from the engine today, it was really only audible at idle. Any sort of throttle it seemed to go away, or at least was over shadowed by the regular engine noise.

I read around that it can happened because of an exhaust manifold gasket leak. Other thing I read was a lifter getting stuck and causing the noise.

Just to add a bit a timeline to this issue, when the car was purchased a couple months ago it began to tick a day or so after the purchase.

I ending up putting castrol gtx magnatec 5w-30 in it and a new oil filter. Figured the noise was from just old oil. Afterwards the tick ending up stopping for awhile. However after a bit it came back for a a very short time then stopped, and now it has come back again.

I did some running around today for a few hours about, the engine had the tick the whole time. Like I state above it was only really audible during idle.

Hopefully some of you guys can direct me on what path to take. I'm not sure how serious this issue might be, I can probably check for the manifold leak easily. I don't know what kind of damage a sticking lifter might do if left unchecked.

Any and all advice is appreciated, thanks in advance!