About your engine ticking noise. I don't know if your rocker arms are new or the originals when you rebuilt the engine but LS rocker arms are somewhat known to have weak reunions where they pivot on the studs. It's possible that one may have started to fail resulting in excess play on that pushrod. You can buy upgraded aftermarket trunion replacements or one of your lifters may have started to collapse but I would check that all the stud nuts are torqued properly fiestas as you mentioned. They are what they call positive stop studs. There is a shoulder on them that the nuts torque against. You don't need to go through turning the engine to get each valve closed before tightening the nuts except when you first install the valvetrain. Just trying to help and return the favor of all your great videos!