"Stuck Lifter"- harmful to valve train?

Lately on my 89 4.0 I hear the tick tick at idle and acceleration when cold. I thought it was exhaust manifold leak and tightend bolts up with some noticable improvement in cold start tick. Last weekend I had the hood open and listened for a while and the tcking would start faint and get louder and then stop and start the cycle again. So after reading some other posts I figure maybe stuck lifter. The tick does go away, but I was wondering if it damages the push rod or something when the tick is going on? I mean the motor only has 372,000 miles on it, you would think it would run like a sewing machine.:sure:

It won't hurt anything. It sounds like your's is in better shape than most of the young'uns with only 100k miles.

Hell, mine has 54k miles on it, and it has regular oil changes every 4k miles. Even it has a lifter tick lol

The injectors will make a slight rapid ticking sound as well.