ticking cherokee motor

[kbest]

796000

I have a '89 jeep cherokee with 130,000 mi. with the I-6 F.I. motor. We recently took the jeep to the mountains for vacation (mostly on road driving) about mid way of the trip we noticed that every time we start to go up the hill we can here a ticking noise coming from the motor. When we started down hill taking the load off the motor it would quit. It has gradually gotton worse to the point on flat land when you accelerate you can here the ticking. If the jeep is in park and you rev the motor up in rpms you don't here the ticking. Please help before the bomb goes boom.

 

[SavageXJ]

797000

I have a 90' Cherokee and I had the ticking sould around 193,000 miles. It graduly got worse and evenutuly one of my piston rods shatered and my engine died. Im not saying this is the problem that your car has but it could possible be...
Chris

 

[Mudshark]

1041507

How is your oil pressure? Does the ticking sound seem to be coming from the valve cover (a cam bearing) or the oil pan (a main bearing)? My '88 Chief had a top end ticking sound and very low oil pressure. A high volume oil pump helped very little. I eventually lost power altogether and ended up putting in a new long block. [addsig]