illss welcome to Racing Junk hope you will hang around and learn some good lessons as we all do from this great site. I would just like to say that if your engine an trans that you bought for $800.00 with 109xxx miles and 36 years old and all original lasted longer then 8 mins then you have done better then some people that spent a lot more on a new engine. I would think that the ticking sound would be from a weak lifter so maybe you could change the oil and filter and run it 300 or 400 miles and then change the filter again and put some good oil treatment in it to help with the blow by. I would not use this engine for drag racing. Thanks again for telling us your story and enjoy the site.