Bad cam or worse?

05 Passat 271k miles. My wife and daughter have been driving this for the last 2000 miles or so. I haven't even heard it running in a couple of months. Yesterday, I take it out. Ac on high, radio was load, but within 100 yards I realized it sounds crappy. Here's a video. I'm not 100 % sure that it wasn't an instant failure of some sort, or something that built over time. Wife's response is that all the diesels always sound load. This is way beyond that. Seems to drive fine but sound like it's going to self destruct at idle.

https://youtu.be/DskUw6Jq-Tc

Yikes that just sounds nasty! I would be checking the cam.

I'm going to pull the cover when I get home later today.

It sounds very metallic, metal on metal. The misfire is what leads me to think it is cam related. I do agree the frequency is too high from what I've heard, could be the cell phone mic though.

271k miles. Gear driven BSM at 90K.

I took the valve cover off this evening. I will admit that I have never seen a damaged cam in person but I was struggling to detect any wear on my cam.

A couple of other things to add: This car starts quick. In fact almost instantly. I was using the starter to bump the cam to the right place so I could get the valve cover off, and I accidentally started it up. It was a cold engine, but it is about 90 here today. It also does put out a little blue smoke at start up.

Burns a little oil but i think its less than 1 quart every 5k miles.

It does have an undetermined coolant leak. This started about 3-4 months or so. It might be loosing a quart every couple of thousand miles.

This is going to be a long term, analysis and fix(?). I don't have the time to tackle this immediately. Were are currently on the hunt for another vehicle. Ironically we had talked about getting a beetle and had been eyeing one for a couple of months. I made the guy an offer but he wasn't budging, and i didn't actually need it. I contacted him yesterday and he just sold it.

All thoughts and ideas are appreciated.