Hesitation And Knock Uphill

My 1995 crown victoria lx has been hesitating on light throttle, and makes a knock noise near the rear of the car when accelerating uphill, or randomly on the highway,
also at the same time the car started making a tapping noise only noticeable with the hood open at idle, it sounds like the noise is coming from the top of the intake manifold/valve covers

any help on where i should start i did the fuel filter and am doing the u joint soon