Thanks for the tip on the spark plug. I compared them to the ones that I replaced and they looked to be the same size. Its amazing how close the top of the piston is to the top of the head. One way to tell TDC is stick a metal shaft down into the p;lug hole and watch its height as you slowly rotate the crank pulley. When the piston is at TDC it is really close to the top of the plug hole.

I was messing with this car again the other day. I rechecked that the cam sprockets/timing belt/crank pulley were aligned correctly. The funny thing is is that when I started it the ticking sound started to reduce a little. So I drove the car for a few minutes and it went away!

I was gunning it an VTEC'ing so it looks like everything is back to normal. An old time mechanic friend said that the car could have ingested a piece of dirt or carbon through the plug hole when I was changing the plugs in the first place. It could cause a sound like this according to my friend.

Anyway I'm getting interested in this car again. Since I stuck my $110(delivered) cat-back exhaust on and replaced my right side tie rods I am totally digging this car. The bad news is that I think I want to rebuild the engine now and get it painted! I noticed on ebay there are GSR rebuild kits for like $320. Add in gaskets and a valve job and cylinder re-bore and it should be pretty reasonable. These are cars to drive and I think that the GSRs will go UP in desirability and price.