ticking/knocking noise
 

Well, I woke up bright and early this morning to drive my car out to my parents house and work on it. I had just put brand new 30lb injectors in last night so I thought I'd get on it to see if I could tell a difference. Well, the road my parents live on is out in the country with a nice straight away. I turn onto the road and mash the throttle up to the top of fourth flying by the house. I turn around a ways down the road and hit it hard again. Spinning through first, shift into second, and then I hear a knocking/tapping noise...doh!! I let off immediately. Look at my oil pressure and it is normal. Well, after stopping briefly at my parents, I head home. I checked under the hood first...checked my oil. Everything looked fine. The car runs pretty normal when you arent getting on it. It seems to chug a little when I am starting out in 1st until I get up in the rpms...kind of like when you have a spark plug wire unhooked. Everything sounds normal until you try to get on it. Then it will start tapping. The oil pressure stays normal. It sounds like it is coming from the valve covers. I'm hoping thats where its coming from and not something internally. Got any ideas? I'm thinking its time to pull the valve covers and look around. I'm not even sure what to look for. I'm still a virgin when it comes to this stuff.

are you sure your plug wires are all on? do your 289 heads have adjustable or pedestal mount rockers I'm assuming adjustable and that being the case you will need to make sure all the adjustment nuts are tight but don't just start tightening them down you have to set them correctly if they are pedestal make sure the bolts are all tight although if they were loose you should probably be able to hear it at idle also.ok since you are a virgin at this when you take the valve covers off look at the rockers if there is a stud with a nut on it they are adjustable but if there is just a bolt head they are pedestal mount these should all be tight. try to move the rockers around by hand if the pushrod is down they will move a little not a whole lot but if any of them move alot you need to tighten them down

I checked all my plug wires and they are on. I took the car for a spin again and I really cant tell where the knocking is coming from. It seems to really do it when I get on it. It also seems like one of the pistons isnt firing. Like I said, it's chugging. Could I have a fouled plug? I'll take the valve covers off this weekend and take a look at the rockers. I bought the car the way it is so I'm not sure what type the are. Thank you for the info.!

How would I correctly tighten adjustable rockers?

I can hear the knocking under load. If I slowly rev the car up to 3,500-4,000 I dont hear the knock. In neutral, reving the car from under the hood I dont hear a knock. I am pulling the valve covers off today.
Can anyone tell me how to tighten adjustable rockers in case that is the problem. Im still not sure what kind of rockers I've got. The heads are '66 289 heads and the guy I bought the car from said the rockers are 1.6 roller tip.....what exactly is roller tip? Is it different from roller rockers?

I think pedestal mount rockers must be shimmed for adjustment.

I've got stud mounted and I set them up with .0015" lash. Some people like to set them at 0.0000.

If you've got roller rockers, there will be a little roller on the end of your rocker that rides on top of the valve. Non roller rockers just have a stamped steel surface that rides on the valve.

It sounds to me like a header tick. Don't know about the miss, but ever time a header bolt backs out on me it sounds just like valve train noise. scares me silly, then I tighten it up, and it goes away. Just my .02