47-55.1 What's going wrong inside my 350?

[dsraven]

that's what I was referring to in post 35, about trying to find out what is inside the engine. I have heard a noisy gear drive timing set, they are noisier than a blower from the '70's. it would get annoying pretty quickly.
if I were you I would drag that gear drive out of there and install a quality timing gear set. maybe even change the cam if you want but then there is valve train and lifters to deal with as well so more work to do. you could simply drive it like it is and fix that later. you still should get it running properly so it at least idles.