Do not put 93 octane fuel in your Ranger! It was not designed to run on 93 octane it was designed to run on 87, you can buy 87 without ethanol at most gas stations if you dont want to use the ethanol added. Lucas is a brand name not a specific additive, what did you put in your tank? I would guess your rattle is the heat shield without looking at it, my advice is cut it off(the heat shield not the cat). As for your spark plugs, did you gap them correctly? That could cause lots of problems.
EDIT: My guess is it's a coincidence, put the proper octane in your tank and make sure your plugs are gapped correctly and see if it goes away. If he took a glob of goop from the intake manifold then the idle sensor he replaced was the IAC valve (Idle Air Control), it probably needed to be cleaned not replaced since they run like $70 but there's no way of knowing anymore. 94,000 miles and you needed the fuel pump replaced? You said yourself the car started, the filter I could see but what reason did he have for replacing the pump? How well do you know this guy? If I didn't know any better I'd say he was trying to pad his pockets by selling excess parts, unless there were other symptoms we haven't heard. Not trying to sound insulting but I don't know the situation or the man and I'm just trying to make sure you don't lose money over stuff that's working fine.