I ran into the same thing wth the bucket, top end went back up all new with alum heads/roller rockers/tall cast valve covers and the new found ticking, ( oil press 35 idle / 45-50 at cruise ) after a dozen valve adjusts and playing with the timing I desided that this combination did little if any to dampen valve train noise, but 6k miles with LOTS of time at WOT she still sounds the same and runs great.