We got it figured out! A bolt on the cam sproket had come loose during operation, making the loud tick. It turns out, that when our engine guy put the cam bolts on, even though he used loctite (it may have been the wrong grade/color, but were not sure), he forgot to clean the bolt holes of oil, so the loctite had nothing to hold to. So anyway, we cleaned the bolt holes, reloctited, and retorqued the cam bolts. Topdawg, this may be the same problem that you are having, because if these bolts work loose, it will cause MAJOR engine damage (bent valves ect...)