Ford explorer rocker arm

Hi everyone I had question about my
2000 Ford Explorer. I traded my 2001
Dodge Ram in for it. That was about
4 months ago. Ever since then it has
the slightest ticking in the engine
compartment. I took it to get
diagnosed and the guy said it was a
rocker arm. Now I have fixed many
things on my car but not to this
extent. He said that he would have to
pull the whole engine out. Last time I
checked rocker arms were on the
top. I looked at it myself and there is
something sitting on the valve cover.
Not sure what it is. So would I have
to take that off to get to the valve
cover, to get to the rocker arm. I also
think the pushrod is bent aswell.
2000 Ford Explorer xlt to be exact.
Thank you!