Having a frustrating problem right now. After driving for 25 minutes the other day I noticed a ticking noise coming from under the hood. It sounds like it is coming from the passenger side of the engine. It sounds like a valve tap but I am not sure. The ticking gets faster when I give it gas.
Then I noticed my oil psi gauge is acting crazy. It goes up every time I press the gas but when I am slowing down or at idle it drops to almost the red.
Any ideas on what the ticking may be or how i can figure it out??? Possibly related to the psi gauge??

Thanks

I would get a mechanical oil pressure gauge and test the real pressure. Low pressure will cause a tick

Agreed, do it soon if you can. Holding off could cause something worse to happen if it'* fixable and not addressed soon.

I am going to try to get my hands on a real tester today. . . . .What exactly is the ticking? It doesn't start until the car warms up but once it does the oil psi gauge pretty much jumps down to the red every time I stop. Just tryna get an idea of what it is.

What oil are you using, viscosity wise that is. Like suggested, check it with a mechanical pressure tester. If that shows the pressure is really dropping, then your bearings are going out.

Ticking can be a lifter, bearings or a few other things. Ticking overall is a bad thing.

I'm using 10w-30, quaker state. I'm pretty sure the lifters are something I could do myself, but what about the bearings. What is the difficulty level of replacing those or is it better to just get a new engine.
O and I just had a rebuilt tranny put in about a month ago.

Bearings are a high skill job. Doing it is easy, doing it right is another story. You need to use the correct bearings to compensate for any wear on the shaft.

When replacing the piston rod bearins, that'* a competent machine shop with align boring and tons of cost. That'* where I usually pick up another engine and take the lower cost road. Luckily at the moment our engines are in high supply and cheap.

Well according to my local shop I am going to need a new engine anyway. At first I thought that he was trying to get over on me, but then I got home and you recommended the same thing so unfortunately it might be time to say goodbye to my Bonne. He said all my bearing were shot and I have a bent rod. I'm not sure how he diagnosed this from the outside, either way I kno it cost a whole lot to dig down and fix it. . . . .so I might just have to make that hard decision!