A lifter tick can also sound like an exhaust leak at the manifold.
BUt removing the manifold without breaking studs/bolts in the heads can also be a tool throwing curse fest.
Lifter ticks might respond to mechanic in a bottle like Marvel mystery oil or some Seafoam in the sump. Risilone, Liquimoly, ect might possibly be effective on a ticky lifter.
I have a fairly quiet one that comes and goes. Seems to come with lots of short trip driving and goes with longer highway drives.
Worst lifter tick happened after I let someone convince me I needed to run 20w-50 a decade ago. Wound up draining it in 100 mile add returned to 10w-40 and the tick almost instantly disappeared.
I could likely just have removed and replaced the oversize filter and added some 0w-20 rather than wasting the full 5 quarts of 20w-50
