05 crown Victoria spewed oil now tapping on start up

New here. I was driving car today 40 miles with a few traffic jams. I stopped at store,opened door and smelled oil burning. I immediately looked at all gauges oil pressure, water temp. And others all good. I shut car off and looked underneath and seen some dripping coming from drivers side area and was sprayed all underneath car. I let sit for a while then checked dipstick and it was missing a quart of oil.. Cranked it and that's when I heard the tapping sound on start up for the first time... Tried it again and no tapping. .ran and got the quart of oil that was missing and hoped for the best but it tapped again. Had my old lady press gas and noticed oil seeping out by oil filter... Dragged car home and I'm scared... Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

66,000 miles and didn't have a problem before.

The tapping is only because it is low on oil. The obvious thing from what you've said is the filter has a problem. Maybe it is not seated correctly or missing the gasket. Drop the oil and filter and wipe it off and hopefully see the problem.

I'll be checking the filter and everything else today. Hope you're right.

+1 with the way the lifters work you are probably just hearing the low oil issue. You should be okay over the long run.