Resurrecting an old thread, but I thought I'd share my closure;
Tore into the head, pretty much redid the whole top end...the lifters didn't seem all that bad at first, but went ahead and replaced them anyway.

While the head was off at the machine shop, I took a closer look at the block and the pistons to check play, and there definitely was some, which made me worry about piston slap.

When the head came back we noticed a couple of the original valves were seated way too deep and there was a bunch of scoring on the top of the stems, which was almost certainly the problem. Must have been clattering against the valve springs and guides and in turn pushing the lifters too hard.
We replaced those, put it all back together and by George it now purrs like a kitten!
Tick free Jeep...thank the lord.

 

Thanks for the update! I wish more people would do this.

 

yeah it was super annoying when I was reading through threads trying to determine my problem and there was only ever speculation as to what the issue was and and very rarely a definitive answer.