Hello I would be happy to assist.

Please tell me when you first started to notice the tick? How long ago/

Have you ever had the timing belt replaced?

Sorry, I just want to ask you a series of questions before I give you my thoughts,

How long ago was that?

Okay, have you noticed a decrease in engine performance as the tick has gotten worse? Do you have any malfunction idicators on ie: Check engine, Transmission light?

Right an engine tick would not be caused by a bad motor mount.

Does us sound more like a tick or a rattle?

Okay, first thing is that these engines are a bit noisy, even back to the orginal 3.0 V6 in the Vigors, they all seem to have a tick. Which if you are not noticing any performance problems I would nt be too overly concerned.

If the sound has gotten progressivley worse than that raises an eyebrow.

Ticking noises would not typically be cause by a bad wrist pin

You would expect a rattle with a bad pin, which would be caused by the piston skirts hitting the cylinder walls. I dont believe this is the case in you r situation

I would focus more on the cylinder heads.

From my experience the cause can be one of a few things, if the valve adjustement was dont properly you need to ask you mechanic if any of the lock nuts were too tight or unajustable. This could be signs that you have a sticking valve, meaning that the rockers are hitting the top of the vlave at th wrong time due to gunk or lack of lubrication in the cylinder head.

So my first suggestion for you todo is purchase a good engine treatment, have an engine flush done.

After the oild change add a little bit heaver weight oil maybe 10W 40, and add LUCAS engine treatment,

Drive it for a few days an see if you notice any difference, If not I would go to step two.

My second suggestion is to ask your mechanic if he replaced the tensioner when doing the water pump. If you have an undertensioned timing belt the timing may be off half of a tooth which will cause a tick, a loud one. Which Im hoping is not your case here. If we can prove the timing belt was not set properly and tensioned you may have some recourse to the last mechanic that worked on the vehicle

Do you have any questions thus far?

Possibly, remeber though the timing belts stretch over time, so it is not unheard of that the belt needs to be looked at again , especially if the tensioner was not replaced

The last suggestion is that you have a bad/bent valve, and need to have the cylinder head reworked. At this point I wouldnt waste you time rebulding the engine, I woudl simply replace it with a used one. You will save more money and most used engine will come with a warranty.

I have seen them sell for between $1000-$2000, and you are probably looking at $1000 for labor to install

I wouldnt reccomend at this point, it will only be more costly, Removal of the cylinder heads, the labor, then you need to have them reworked, with ne valves springs retainers, keepers, then at that you could have a bad cam that has gotten worn due to possible lubrication issues. I have always reccomended engine replacement start from a clean slate.

It will be less costly

At this point its up to you, do you want to pour 3-4G into this vehicle?

Try my first suggesttion, if that doesnt help I would go with the options I provided, and worst case, sell the car AS IS get what you can for it, probably 4-5K

Or just drive it till you need to purchase a new engine,.

If its running fine, leave it be

Anytime, be sure to shop around for an engine before you purchase.

shouldnt be more than 12 hours of labor, which at $100 an hour your looking at about 1200

Be sure to Accept and feedback is appreciated

Best of luck, and feel free to reach out and let me know how you make out