Alright, all this talk about ticking small blocks got me into getting my 84 F150 into the garage to quieten it down. It was getting worse over the last few days so went and bought a new set of valve cover gaskets and was just about to rip off the lt.valve cover when I decided to get out my trusty stethoscope (the shop broom handle) and poke around a little. The sound appeared to be coming from the left bank but I couldn't hear anything out of the norm wile probing the cover. Decided to check the timing cover area and noted the noise was in this area, moved down a little further and low and behold the fuel pump was just hammering away. Pulled the fuel pump out and the spring between the lever and the body was broken and shoved inside. Went to my supply of small block parts and found another used pump, put it on and guess what, ticking solved. Just to show you don't need special tools to diagnose a problem and can save a lot of grief
