Ideas on what's causing my click/tick/rattle noise?
The next question is why so much carbon buildup? It looks like quite a bit for only 700 miles use. The head looks pretty cruddy too, here are photos before I clean that up. Keep in mind, I'm probably the world's worst engine tuner so there is no end to the possibilities for what I could have screwed up to get into this mess. The photos are for 1-2, 3-4, and 5-6 chambers.
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Agree looks way rich, the exhaust valves in the head should be white. What did the plugs look like?
Concerning being too rich:
1) is the choke adjusted properly or is it staying closed?
2) is the float adjusted properly or is it keeping the carb bowl over full
3) are the idle air mixture screws adjusted properly or are they set too rich
4) was your slant a Lean Burn and if so are you using the Lean Burn carb with wires going to the float bowl?
Did you notice the tailpipe huffing black smoke?
Did you ever check fuel mileage?
It is an expense, but a wide band AF gauge is a nice tuning tool even on a carbureted engine. I have one on the 83D150 and it is a carbed slant six
If you are going to add one I personally like the AEM units, but there are others.