My engine now makes a ticking sound after having had oil problems, I am told it sounds like an rod. Anyone know of a good cheap place to buy a replacement motor. Not planning on doing any performance modifications, just need a new motor for my daily driver.

Junk yard or post in the fs section. They have them on ebay but for a completely rebuilt longblock to stock specs it will probably run you about $2,000. You can also look into just getting a stock block from someone and then putting your head on that. If you can do the work yourself it will be much easier on the pockets. Also, parts dinosaur has stock rebuild kits if you are interested in rebuilding your current motor.

I think it all depends on the amount of downtime you can afford.

http://car-part.com
Should be able to find one for $500-1000 shipped.

Sell your old spun rod engine to someone on here so we can fix it.