timing chain maybe?

[auto alchemist]

ok ive only been driving my freshly swapped SR for about a week now, and its been fine with no noises.

so i go to pull out of a parking lot the other day and i go to shift and it makes a weird noise, so i pull over and its making a rattling noise at idle, but if i push in the clutch the noise goes away, but if i rev it with the clutch still pushed in it will rattle again as soon as you let of the gas.

so i put it on a lift and me and several other well experienced mechanics listen to it with a stethiscope and the noise isnt coming from the transmission, or the bottom end, but it gets really loud when you put it on the timing chain cover, and you can feel it if you put your hand on the valve cover, but the car idles nice and smooth and doesnt run rough at all, i havent taken the valve cover off yet to check for slop in the chain but im thinking i broke a tensioner because it sounds like something is hitting the valve cover, anyone else have an opinion of what it might be?

the only thing that i did to it before it started making noise is tighten the belts (one of them was making noise) so i guess i will try taking the belts off first and see if it still makes noise.

but the thing thats throwing me off is why does the noise go away at idle when you push the clutch in?

[auto alchemist]

ok i pulled the valve cover off, and theres no slop in the chain, so i pluged the coils back in and started just for a few seconds and it gets louder than hell with the valve cover off and it becomes a deep noise, so im guessing its a rod knock and im prety much f***ed now right?

unless anybody thinks it might be something else.