Engine ticks, hot or cold. Gets faster with acceleration. A couple times in the last week the engine made a rumble sound at start up that lasted only a few seconds. No codes and the car drives wonderfully.
What engine do you have?
It’s a 5.4
How many miles on it? Could be nothing but a little age. Ticking could be a sludged up lifter, could the the timing chain but that is usually more of a clatter. Could be an injector.
Really not much to go on. Make sure it has enough oil, it gets changed regularly and accept that older engines do get a bit noisy-er as they get older. One thing for sure, it won’t get better, only worse. At least then you can track it down.
My first guess is a valve lifter is on the fritz. If not done already, try replacing the engine oil and filter, see if that makes any difference. If so at least you’ve narrowed it down to a lube problem inside the engine of some sort. If not the engine, anything attached to the engine or on the serpentine belt could be causing it too. Water pump, alternator, power steering pump, their pulleys and tensioners, etc. Sometimes you can take a length of old garden hose ,use as a stethoscope, to narrow down where the noise is coming from.
I have a similar issue with my wife’s commuter car, a 1997 Acura CL. I reduce the ticking to almost nothing by adding approximately 1/4 quart of Lucas oil stabilizer to each oil change. I also use a high-milage oil.