Hello, first post don’t know if this belongs here but I’ve had a 01 pathy for a little more than a year now it had a severe oil leak 1qt a week depending on how I drove from the oil cooler, valve covers and small oil pan 
Never gave me any other trouble until cylinder 3 would misfire changed the ignition coil still misfired. Checked the plug and it was broken (I know should’ve checked it first)clI changed it and it worked good for a couple days 
then not so much took it apart again New boot was broken 
I put the old but still in good condition boot on and it’s still misfiring. Also there is a ticking noise at idle when in park or neutral but an oil additive calmed this down I barely hear it anymore. The thing is it’s starting to smoke a lot more than usual especially on startup the oil looks fine the coolant looks fine also. I plan on flushing both. I recently changed the valve cover seals I cleaned out the pcv and I had a bad o2 sensor replaced. Every time I fix one thing another breaks what do you think the misfiring the ticking and the smoke are coming from? There’s no coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant could it be head gasket? Sorry typed this on my phone
Suggest to measure the cylinder compressions and post what your get here.
Update! I didn’t have time for a compression test yet. The ticking got louder I seen a video that was diagnosed as piston slap and it sounds exactly the same as my car. I found out if I put on the heat or ac with the a/c switch the noise goes away
That would not change piston slap. Is the drivebelt for the AC too tight or too loose? If it rides over another pulley, does that pulley have any roughness or looseness?
The one thing that is directly affected by AC on is the clutch on the compressor. It moves a bit on its shaft and spins the actual compressor mechanism. Maybe that clutch, with AC off, is the source of the noise.
Okay The A/C switch was a temp fix I think it only worked because the idle was upped a bit. I will get a compression test as soon as I get paid.