F150 tapping sound?

I have a 2008 f150 5.4l 3v with about 143k miles on it, I’ve had somewhat low power and terrible mpg for a while now (about 9mpg instead of 15) also a pretty rough idle on startup until it goes into closed loop and idles down and the other day I noticed my truck ticking somewhere between 800-1200rpm, more of a taping noise like a sewing machine. It’s fine at idle and higher rpm but within that range it makes the noise. I noticed that when I unplugged the vct solenoids that it would stop but it only makes the sound when BOTH solenoids are plugged in, if just one of them is unplugged it stops, it doesn’t matter which one. Could it be bad solenoids? Or is the the phasers. I changed the oil and filter a couple weeks ago and since ive owned the truck for the last 3 years I try to change to oil regularly (every 3k or so) but this last time I didn’t get around to it until around 5-7k. However I’m not sure how well it was maintained by the previous owners. All plugs and coils are new, air filter is fine and fuel filter has less than 5k on it. Injectors have been removed a cleaned with new o-rings. MAF and throttle body has been cleaned and works fine