Could I be floating my valves?

[89lxinwky]

I started hearing this "ticking" sound last week. I'm still learning to be a mechanic but I've done the following:
Based on the slightly different sound of the exhaust and the location of the ticking sound, the first place I looked was #7 exhaust rocker arm (header bolts are tight). All rockers were tight and within torque specs. Although the rocker hold down bolt was tight, I noticed by grabbing the pushrod, I could move it down. I took the push rod out and it wasn't bent. I then took the intake off and removed the lifter. I don't know how exactly you are supposed to deem a lifter bad. From what I said earlier, I would think/hope it is the lifter that is causing the problem. I guess it could potentially be on the valve side of the rocker. I believe I'll do a compression test to make sure the valve is seated and not leaking. If this passes, I'll assume the valve springs are ok and assume the lifter is bad. Anyway, I've been needing an excuse to put new parts on my car so this is my chance. Hopefully, doing the above will help locate/fix my problem and while I'm at it I'm going to port the heads a little(especially on exhaust side "bumps") just to clean them up, new cam/lifters/push rods and GT 40 intake 70mm tb/egr are on the way. If the other couple guys who were hearing this sound don't have any luck doing the things the others have suggested, you might want to try what I've done. I'll let you know later how everything turns out.