[measuretwice]

Well, I went to finally take a look and work on it, and the problem seemingly went away (as in, no more noise). That is, until a couple weeks ago. Driving to work in the morning and lost all acceleration. If I touched the gas, got a horrible noise from the engine. Tried dropping into lower gears (as I was coming off the highway and needed to get clear of traffic) to slowly pull away and got nothing (maybe the tranny had blown out). Anyways, I stand vindicated as the flywheel snapped, a LONG time ago, before I even got it. But it jammed itself together enough to still drive for some time before finally coming completely apart. The center of it, as attached to the crankshaft, spun out of the rest of the wheel! Ouch! But replaced the wheel and the chewed timing belt, and now my car actually accelerates like it should! Go figure huh.