Engine ticking noise

[valdez]

I have a 2004 2.3L, that has a loud ticking sound coming for the engine.
It comes and goes. Sometimes it will sound fine, other times I can hear a loud and constant ticking noise.
At idle it goes tick-tick-tick-tick-tick really fast (almost as fast as you can say it).
It seems to be performing just fine other than the ticking. Engine doesn't feel any different ticking or not.
Anybody else have this problem and find what caused it?

[JC-MX5]

I'm assuming this is a 3? I'm not sure about the 3 engines but Mazda seems to build motors that tick a lot, so it may be nothing.