ticking noise? Timing Iasue?

[rogus]

You can get a USB smartphone borescope that you can use with your phone to look inside any cylinder, or through intake/exhaust port to see if anything is bent, broken, etc.. Some are small enough to go through the dipstick hole, or if you pull the distributor through that hole to get a look inside the oil pan, or better drain the oil and go through the drain plug hole to have a look around.

If you do pull the distributor, maybe get a Oil Pump primer tool in there to spin the oil pump and make sure there's no noise, or issues when you do that. #8 cylinder is in the rear of the engine so that's in the vicinity of the oil pump, and distributor drive.

https://www.amazon.com/Anykit-Endoscope-Inspection-Semi-Rigid-Waterproof/dp/B0C1B47KSS?tag=gbody-20

https://www.amazon.com/DPTOOL-Primer-Chevy-Small-Block/dp/B086KR2PY7?tag=gbody-20

one of the number 8 pison rockers was hitting against the baffle in the valve cover.

 

[rogus]

I would definitely check the rockers to make sure they're all properly tight and not banging into anything in the valve cover.

one of the number 8 pison rockers was hitting against the baffle in the valve cover.

 

[rogus]

one of the number 8 pison rockers was hitting against the baffle in the valve cover.

I would definitely check the rockers to make sure they're all properly tight and not banging into anything in the valve cover.

one of the number 8 pison rockers was hitting against the baffle in the valve cover.

 

[rogus]

Have you removed all the belts to eliminate noise coming from any pulleys, or the fan. Also unbolt torque converter from the flex plate and push it back towards trans for clearance; assuming it's an auto.

Are the valve covers the same as when it was run out of car? Maybe roller style rockers are hitting inside of covers, and they need to be taller.

Get a long screwdriver or actual engine stethoscope see if you can determine if the noise is top of engine, left or right valve cover, front timing cover or from bottom or in oil pan area.

Use a cylinder balance analyzer (kinda old school, analog tach/dwell meter style, Craftsman had one back in the day) and see if killing one cylinder at a time changes or isolates the noise to a particular cylinder(s).

If you don't have one, you can use test light and some short pieces of vacuum line between spark plug wires and cap to kill spark. Some guys like to poke holes in the boots on the distributor cap but I don't like doing that.

one of the number 8 pison rockers was hitting against the baffle in the valve cover.

 

[565bbchevy]

My guess is that one of the number 8 piston rockers was hitting against the baffle in the valve cover.