I have a 93 J30t with 148k miles on it that a few months ago started to make ticking noise, which recently got worse. I changed the timing belt about 3 years ago except for cam seals and vtc springs. Therefore is it possible that bad springs could cause that knocking as it appears mostly at lower rpm/ idle and coming for timing cover or it could be something else?

Are you using premium fuel, or just regular?

Always premium. Turns out it was a bad timing belt tensioner.