i got a 98 banshee and it had a ticking sound at idle but still had all its power i thought. so i went on line to see what every one had to say about why it mad this sound but there was so many reisons why so i took it in to my own hands to find out why . so i pulled the head off to see if the pistons had any thing to do with the noise , when the head was off with my finger i pushed the cylinder side to side to see if there was any play between the cylinder and the piston and sure enough there was .with each motion the piston hit the walls of the cylinder and there was i tick sound on either piston . so i knew buy this point i found the problme so what i did was bored (honed) the cylinder then got the right piston and rings for the bore and also replased the pin bearings ,cause that slight free play between the cylinder and piston can wear them also, next i put it back together now its fine no ticking , remeber it ticks for a reisons some one said it they just make a ticking sound wrong there is all ways some thing to it like this problme
hope this gives you an idea of what the ticking can be