Thanks for the ideas, I'll need to hook up an external oil pressure gauge to check the cold vs. warm oil pressures, but I did run it for a few minutes one time with the left rocker cover off and it was squirting oil all over the valvetrain, so the pressure is likely to be OK. I tried pulling the plug wires one by one up on the distributor as they are hard to get at on the plugs, but any exposed terminal on the distributor just arced to the cap so loud I couldn't hear if it changed the tick sound

I'm going to put on a new distributor drive gear just for laughs, and if it still ticks after that I'll get it diagnosed by my local pro. If it's something as serious as a wrist pin or anything requiring head removal, I'll set the car aside until I can afford a nice small block V8, as I don't think the 229 is worth putting any serious time or any more money in to.

-Fordlords-