91 Jeep xj problem

( 91Jeep Cherokee 4.0L ) I have owned this Jeep for 8 years and it has always made a weird tick. I’ll explain. I’ll start it up engine is cold and drive for a hour come home turn it off engine is warm and maybe 5 minutes later ill start it up again engine is still warm and it may tick for a second or two and go away or it will continue to tick until engine it turned off or it may not tick at all. Say i let it sit for hours engine is cold i start it up it may tick for a second or it may not but it never continues to tick when the engine is started up cold only warm . It also never starts ticking when engine is on and at running temp. Could i be right to say lifters??? or maybe it is spark knock at start up??? Also the tick get faster not louder when i rev it up. HELP