Thanks for the pics. Those lobes look pretty aggressive too even with the bigger base circle, I guess LPE uses quite a bit different lobe than the other cams I had on the shelf. Pretty certain my issues lie within the heads. Cheers!

 

guides wont cause noise. they will cause loss of oil, and lots of smoke.
Check your header bolts, and your collectors. its probably an exhaust leak, or check your timing. you might be having detonation.

ive had experience with all 3, and thought all 3 was a result of a flat lobe on a cam, and it was 43* initial timing. and my guides were bad, and was burning a quart of oil every 30 miles.


aaron

 

Nope its none of that, been all over those items with a stephoscope, its the valve train no doubt about it. If the guides are worn, the valve stem will slap around in the bore, which from the abnormal wear on a set of 5k mile guide plates, that leads me to that idea it might be that..or it was the non-hardened GM plates. If the seals are good, which they were brand new less than 3k miles ago, they would keep excessive oil from getting to the valve guide area.

 

My old heads with bad guides/valvejob ticked like crazy and my new heads are dead silent so I think it would have something to do with ticking. I would be 100% sure you have no exhaust leaks before you pull the heads though.

 

When you stick the stethoscope on the rocker studs while its running, there's no doubt there are about 4-6 of them that are wayyy louder than the rest.