I finally got my Cutlass running strong when I replaced the timing chain. Now all of a sudden, I got an extremely loud ticking noise! Its very audible in the exhaust! I thought that the pipes were vibrating on something but that definitely wasn't the case. There is an obvious miss on 1 of the cylinders as well. Sounds like something inside the heads. I only put like 10,000 miles on it since I have the vehicle. Prior to my ownership, the engine and trans was rebuilt. They had receipts and pics to prove it. I remember when I took the valve covers off a few years back, I was amazed on how clean all of the rockers and other components were. No gunk clutter anywhere. I'm at a crossroad right now. Im very interested in other fellow Olds Enthusiasts experiences with this issue. Tighten the rockers on it? Is this another rebuild? engine swap? LS conversion? Big block Olds?

 

Many moons ago I worked on a motor where the timing gear failed at speed and one of the valves got bent. Run a compression test on the side with the miss. If you pull a valve cover and one of the valve tips is lower than the rest with all the rockers removed you will have likely found your problem.