Glad to find that it not the cam or the valve that's ticking. I looked into the ticking sound a little further and it's coming from the distributor. There's a little blue thingy inside(small body HEI) that I removed when I installed an adjustable vacuum advance. I failed to put it back in properly. My distributor guy new exactly what it was when I called him.

I was freaking out over you guys and your horror stories with wiping out cams.