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I removed the valve covers and turned the engine by hand until the timing marks lined up as they should on the phasers and I verified cylinder 1 was at the top of its stroke, so I believe I have verified that the timing is correct. What I found when I removed the #1 spark plug to verify it was at top-dead-center was that the top of it is covered in a layer of wet/burnt oil. This matches where oil appears to be entering the cylinder from the air intake. I believe probably a bad ring has caused the PCV system to saturate cylinder 1 to the point of fouling. I guess I could test this briefly with a new spark plug in cyl 1 to see if they all fire correctly. Regardless, my next step is to do a compression test and hopefully pinpoint the problem, but I'm gearing up to tear it all apart and do a proper rebuild instead of trying to patch the problem. I haven't done a full rebuild before, but have always wanted to, so I am looking forward to it. I'm just hoping I don't find anything wrong with the block.

 

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The culprit was a blown sparkplug. There was a ticking before that I believe was because the sparkplug was loose and air was escaping, and also causing a lean fuel-air mixture condition which overheated the sparkplug.