noisy tick that won't stop

Lifter noise is a typical thing for the G1. But what's happening is the valves are getting stuck when the engine is cold. They'll loosen up once the motor is hot. There are some stuff you can do like adding ATF into the crankcase since it had detergent to clean stuff up. I need to look into that first so hang on a bit while I confirm on that.

The idle issue, where does the tach needle sit? Things you can try doing is cleaning the throttle body, change air filter, and adjust idle screw.

Well the ticking actually stays the same. Its actually quiet the first few seconds after it cranks. It idles around a grand usually. Sometimes it does like to hang out around 800. Also just recently noticed the clutch acting funny in low gears like first and reverse. The pedal is nice and firm and smooth till it gets to the floor then it starts to feel "notchy". I can drive a stick well and every time I leave from 1st or start to back up, I almost choke it out