Ticking sound

Okay so when my car would get low on oil it would have a mild ticking sound fron the driver side, but it would go away once i put oil in. It has been a loooong time since the oil's been changed. Recently i did a header swap and couldn't hear the ticking till i got mufflers on. Well now it's louder than it ever has been but i have the right amount of oil in the car. It doesn't feel less powerful, and the ticking gets faster as the rpm goes up. Not sure what it cpuld be, was thinking lifters?