you would have to test each wire to verify they are working ok... even then there could still be a problem. external looks on a cap are meaningless... mine looked like new on the outsidebut were shot

 

Ok, I'm going to check all that tonight/tomorrow since it's starting to get dark. Just went around the block a couple times, sounds like its coming from the right side of the engine. Used an ifarared thermometer and each header tube is appproximately 400*F, and the outlet of the cat is approximately 30-40* hotter than the inlet. Would I be correct in assuming that would rule out most problems concerning the cat, since the outlet is hotter than the inlet and no header tubes temps are out of the ordinary?
I popped off the TB and searched around some more for oil, looks to be very dry and clean. My vacuum gauge has come up missing though, so I cannot perform the plenum gasket check as directed in TSB 09-05-00 . Hopefully I can find it soon or borrow one and check it out. If I can figure out a way to mount my camcorder in the engine bay for a minute or two, I'll ride around with it recording for a couple minutes and then get the sound on here so everyone can hear it.

 

if the intake is dry and the cats are flowing (you may have 3... I did) look to the cap & rotor & wires.. Also, just thought of something... the pump may not be holding pressure which could cause a drop in pressure @ the rail. someone in the past posted here that they found gunk on top of the injector screens causing low flow... food for thought.

 

are your spark plug wires just regular wires or have they been upgraded. tonight while its dark, with the truck running, lift your hood a little bit (not enough for the light to come on) look at the spark plugs and look for blue arcing. the wires can make a pretty nasty ticking noise even if they look good. if you can see them arc, i bet that's where your noise is coming from. ive noticed sometimes it takes your eyes to adjust for a few seconds to be able to see the arcing.

 

when mine started the pinging .. i replaced the plugs , and wires.. did not replace the dist tho. the mechanic pulled something off of the engine (vaccuum line) and told me there should be NO vaccuum coming out of this line and it like to suck my finger right in it.. thats how he could tell the gasket was gone.

 

I had a ticking sound from the passenger side of my engine that just ended up being the little ball bouncing around inside my PCV valve.

 

I don't think they've been upgraded. I took some pictures. I'd say they look kind of new, but not anything high end. They just say "Mopar" on them. Not sure about their thickness or anything.

Picture 1
Picture 2

EDIT: Found my vacuum gauge, hooked it up to the breather hose between the air filter and manifold as directed in TSB 09-05-00 . Capped off the PCV Valve and Intake Manifold PCV Port. After 30 seconds of idling my vacuum gauge shows NO vacuum, which pretty much rules out any bad plenum gasket. I'll try it again tomorrow to make sure, but at this point I'm looking at a fuel pump that's dropping off on heavy acceleration or a bad distributor cap. I'll start with the cheaper of the two tomorrow and more than likely just swap out the distributor cap and button with new ones for peace of mind.

 

regular wires like that can arc very easy and cause a ticking. it can also cause misfires. did you look under the hood at the spark plug wires like i posted?

 

When I had a similar sound I went around and around with the dealer. They did what I now know is the infamous death flash (did not cure anything). Sound almost reminded me of a small exhaust leak. In my case it seemed to be worse when first starting outand engine was cold. Replaced plugs, wires checked for exhaust leaks nothing. Eventually the dealer figured out it was the intake gasket, but of courseby then it was out of warranty. Fixed it and haven't had a problem with that since and haven't been back to the dealer either.

 

Yeah I went outside right after I read that and looked for about 10 minutes worth of idling. Didn't see any arcing at all.