Regarding the problem of valve ticking, and now smoking oil out the pipe;

Based upon the existence of reasonable oil pressure I would not first be looking at the lifters as the cause of the valvetrain ticking. I would also not rule them completely out just yet either.

Since you have a relatively high lift cam I'd start by checking valve spring retainer to valve seal clearance. Valve ticking and oil out the pipe suggests to me that it may be beating valve seals. A seal, or seals, may not have been seated correctly, or you may have insufficient clearance between the seals and spring retainers.

If the seals and retainer clearances check out OK, then start looking at cam lobes and lifters as the cause of ticking, and intake gaskets and piston rings as the source of burning oil out the pipe.

Unfortunately, if you rule out the upper valvetrain as the cause and then need to go deeper I'd do a complete teardown and reassembly since the quality of the original build is unknown and then suspect.