Really?!  That is terrifying.

Have Canton T pans always been that size?  This one is about 20 years old.

So here's what happened...

I put the valve covers back on and warmed up the engine until it started ticking again.  Then I added another quart of the same oil that was in it.  The oil in the engine had about 500 miles on it.  I had put in 5 quarts with the filter.  This is a Canton "T" pan, but not the race version.  The oil is the white label Castrol GTX 10W30, not synthetic silver, or synthetic blend green.  With the engine running and ticking I added one quart from the same batch I bought when I changed the oil in the car.  The ticking got quieter.  I continued running the car for a while just in case it took some time to heat the quart I added back up to the point that it would start ticking again.  After about 10 minutes of running and revving the engine to get it to heat up, the ticking never returned.

Then I jacked up the car and drained the oil.  I did collect a sample of the oil for analysis.

Straub had recommended a full synthetic 10W40 oil, which was surprisingly difficult to find.  Eventually I found Royal Purple HPS (high performance street) full synthetic 10W40 at the local NAPA auto parts (they also had Amsoil, but that cost almost double what I paid for this purple stuff, $14/bottle) I got 6 quarts and a NAPA gold filter.  I changed the oil and put in all 6 quarts (not 5 like the last oil change).  It was even quieter than it had been before the oil change and no ticking.  I ran it for a while and still no ticking.  Then I took it out on the road and on the highway to get fully hot and it hasn't started ticking.

So now some new theories:

- 5 quarts isn't enough oil for this engine.  It never lost oil pressure with 5 quarts, even on the road accelerating and turning corners, maybe it was sucking a little bit of air and foaming the oil, but I never saw any evidence of that
- Perhaps this oil had been damaged by fuel contamination and adding a fresh quart helped it a bit.  It is a carbureted car with a choke and it runs a bit rich sometime, but I'm surprised if the oil could be fouled in 500 miles, perhaps it is marginal for this application and just a bit of wear and the oil viscosity gets too low for these lifters.
- Maybe this oil formulation and grade just doesn't work well with these lifters.  I've always kind of assumed oil was oil.  I pay attention to weight and I know synthetic has better temperature tolerance, but I generally bought what was on sale and since I only drive this car on nice days conventional oil was good enough.  It isn't flat tappet, so I wasn't too worried about zinc.
- Maybe this engine needs the slightly heavier weight 10W40, bearing clearances, or lifter bore clearance might be better served by the 10W40.  I had experimented with 20W50 on this engine and other that burying the needle on the oil pressure gauge, I didn't notice much improvement.  10W40 runs at a higher oil pressure than the 10W30 did, but it is still in the normal range of the gauge.

I'm going to send in this oil for testing, maybe it will give me a clue about what happened.  The good news is it seems to be solved.  Hopefully I don't have to change my oil every 500 miles.

so jay and kelly here is your calling lol!

My plate is pretty full at the moment but I'm still looking for someone with an active Cammer build that wants (to run) a single carb or IR Inline Carb system.

Jay, maybe you should enlist those Inlines of yours in some Cammer duty!

Best,
Kelly

Ross, does that block have a oil return in the skirt?

It does not