too bad
About the timing belt, I replaced mine at 85,000 miles and spend more money that I thought, first I went to a Mitsu dealer and the sold me the timing belt, the tensioner and the pulley, then I had to come back to buy another pulley and then again to buy another belt (smaller) and another pulley (smaller). I spent about $250-300 in parts plus the labor fees.
My mechanic is an honest guy and told me that the best way to do it is to change those 6 parts instead of just buying 3 or 4 and saving some money.
The ticking sound might be a pulley. I also had a problem with a strange sound and in my case it seemed to be the smaller pulley.
BTW Where did you buy your muffler and how much did you pay for it?