Wasn't meant to prove an argument Rob. Just pointing out his cam is not big for any build.
As I suspected, his tune up is diametrically opposed to what I would do, but that's up to the OP. I'm not a big fan of comp, ever and love to bash them every chance I get. But that bashing needs to be based in fact and that lobe ain't ****.
So the OP needs to look at his tune up and work on that for a bit and see where he gets as far as stinking up his clothes.
As for the noise, I rarely address this because I get bashed for being anal retentive, but I can tell you in had a .509 on stock rockers and it sounded like solid lifters. Since it was 1982, I don't remember why I even had the valve covers off, but I noticed there was a good bit of slop between the rockers, and the rockers and the hold downs. So I did some checking and not one place told me it was normal to shim the rockers. That I was crazy to waste my time. I went ahead and bought the shims and closed up the slop. All the noise went away. All of it. It was the rockers making the noise, not the cam.
To this day, I don't do a set of head without the rockers. I number them all and shim them so they are correct.
BTW, some of the later replacement OEM style rockers measured a bit narrower than the OE rockers.
