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Nasty sound, for sure, but I'm not thinking it's really a bad rod bearing. It's just not deep and 'clunky' enough for that, sounds a little lighter in tone. When my PV's engine spun a rod bearing the sound was deeper, and also came and went depending on what the motor was doing. Didn't really make any noise at idle unless you pulled the spark plug wire for that cylinder.
First and easiest check, pull off the valve cover and crank the motor over and look for anything unusual. I'm not really holding out much hope for that - the usual failing in the valve train is a flat lobe - and those happen pretty quietly most of the time.
Another possibility - something small and metallic got into a combustion chamber somehow, and now it's hammering away. A quick check might be to pull the spark plugs, if there's anything bouncing around in there the plug will get beaten up some.
My own crystal ball hunch - is that it's the timing gear coming apart. The outer fiber section can come loose from the steel hub, and that allows the gear to rattle against the aluminum timing cover on the front of the engine.
At the very least, you have an incremental way to work toward the problem. Pull the valve cover, look for problems. Pull the plugs, look for problems. Pull the timing cover, look for problems. You could pull the head and look for problems after that, but at that point you're probably going to have to pull the motor anyhow.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic #1141 245 (now w/16V turbo)
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