Naw, the scenario I just described --the cam was whisper quiet and progressively became louder. It didn't fart, miss, pop or give any indication of a cam failure. These Lunati grinds are quiet not like the COMP garbage. If yours has been loud for 12k miles then you either don't have a cam problem (more like pushrods hitting the heads?) or you don't know what a dead cylinder or 2 or 3 sound like. Furthermore maybe you don't know what it "should feel like-power wise" I have had many customers that didn't know when 1 or 2 spark plug wires were off and asking me why it was down on power. Its not that uncommon. J.Rob