My 272 has been making banging sounds at first startups until warmed up and then lately barely running and really rough....acting as if timing is off. I pulled engine from car (my first thought was to replace engine /trans with something newer, but after seeing what everyone is saying here about keeping car stock thought best to fix and reinstall). Backyard mechanic but not sharp enough to know where to start to see what the problem could be. I thought once the oil pan was off I would be able to see something broken under there (banging sounded like in that area at rear bottom of engine) but now thinking maybe timing chain may have broken....not sure why? So far the only thing off engine is oil pan so asking if there is way to tell if chain is broken without taking front off or if I should be checking something else. In a perfect world I would just drop it off at machine shop and say fix-it but I don't have a thousand bucks or more to be doing that.

I do have an engine stand but so far only resting on a cart. Should I start tearing down? Car ran perfect before and even after the banging started once warmed up until lately. Pretty much at a loss here and I know this the Technical section but couldn't find the Engine Repair for Dummies section