ticking you say... what rockers you got? stud mount or pedestal mount... if they're stud mount, and its ticking and rockers are coming off... its cause you have an aftermarket cam... a problem many people run into with stud mount 302s is that when an even mild cam is put in, the rockers aren't slotted far enough and start pulling your studs out of the heads... only way to solve this properly is to change to roller rockers, a cheaper way to fix would be to have the rockers machined so the slots are larger, but most likely if this has been going on long enough, your rockers will be bent... plus also your studs may already have been pulled too much... if thats the case you'll have to have the heads drilled and have new threaded in studs put in... if you're lucky enough, you've already got thread in studs... either way you should goto roller rockers if you've got a non-stock cam... hopefully this isn't your problem, but i've had it happen and seen it happen to quite a few 302s