2007 f150 with a horrible ticking. The engine runs smooth, no stuttering or lagging. The ticking gets faster as the engine revs but haven’t noticed it getting quieter as the engine heats up.

back story, engine was running fine about a week ago while running around town. went to Home Depot, came out after about 20 min and the horrible ticking began. Dash says there’s oil pressure, and did an oil change on it today and still has the problem. Pulled the valve cover all seemed good, nothing loose.
also connected a shop vac to the exhaust pipe to blow into the exhaust and sprayed manifold and exhaust with soapy water to check for leaks and had no luck finding bubble/leaks, but still not ruling out a cracked/leaking exhaust manifold.
I have a video, but it’s too big to post on the forum

 

Video attached

 

Hard to say from that short clip.
A tick that doesn't go away is typically either a rod knock or cam follower that has ejected or is worn out.
You may have to roll the engine over half a turn and look again at the cam followers again to see if one is really sloppy when the cam is in a different position.

I suppose if you broke a chain tensioner /guide really bad it could make a noise like that as well ..

 

That don't sound like exhaust...

 

Did you feel each roller to see if its loose .Like they said turn engine and look at each position . Next drop oil pan and look at bottom end and stuff laying in oil pan --see if oil pu clogged up . I threw one intake roller and boy was it noisy . Did full timing job ,replaced all rollers and lashs .
If you have to pull cams then you need to jam timing chain, mark cam ,mark phasor and chain links to line back up . But I prefer to open timing cover and setup the full timing .
look at cam lobes the ones with the most wear is probably one of the bad rollers . You can pop a roller out with a screw driver .They can be popped back in , there are videos that show that . Lashs are harder to determine , I just gave up and replaced them all.

 

I have experienced the same issue with my 2005 lariat screw

Took top hats off and found a broken guide on bank 1 so I now have her tore down in driveway and about to do a complete timing job including a Melling M360HV oil pump. Waiting on new guides as Ford's are on back order so I opted for Cloyes. I'm hoping they will last. Found lots of timing cover shavings in oil pickup screen.

So, I'm hoping that this repair will solve all DTC's and performance issues.