OK, my car (1984 Z28 with 350, speed demon carb) just started making a strange noise. It's coming from the front of the engine so I first took the belts off the alternator water pump, and power steering pump but the noise remained. It doesn't seem to be coming from the valve cover area. I haven't done any work on it in a while except having the torque converter replaced a few weeks ago but no problems with that. I have no intention of putting a lot of money in this engine as it has a ton of miles and wasn't great to start with. I was hoping someone might be able to identify it.

 

Get a 3 foot length of vacuum / windshield washer tubing.
Stick one end in your ear and use the other end to probe around.
Be careful of rotating parts.
You will be amazed at how this isolates and locates noises.