95 Ga Gt 3100 ?

[gmack221]

5w20 is not too thick,
I was going to recomend he go to 5w30 to see if it helps the noise issue
for those who don't know
5w20 = when the motor is warm its a 5 weight oil 5w ... 20 is the cold weight
the higher the number the thicker the oil weight ...

if it was ticking with the 5w20 in it you either have a lifter that is plugged up, low oil pressure, or a bad rod bearing allowing the piston to hit your head, lifter noise and a piston just barely touching the head can be easily mistaken.

when you adjusted your valves, did you have any loose push rods?
did you run it then check them again?
did you adjust them with it running? (like the old days)

get your oil pressure tested with a good mechanics oil pressure tester, I tried to rig one up and it did not give me an accurate reading, had my mechanic buddy bring over his and it showed the oil pressure all over the place = bad rod bearing.

have you run a compression test yet?

[kilgorq]

Could also be a bad cam. Lobe knocked down on something fun like that. I have one I am working on and the cam was knocked down 0.050 and 0.075 on 2 of the lobes. Which attributed to the lifter noise. Pull the lifters out and look at the rollers real close. Maybe you can see something that looks suspicious there.