Spring/Keeper interference with Rocker

rustycowll69 said
might be a perfect storm of mismatched parts, poor assembly. With an aftermarket cam, there can be geometry problems. How much lifter preload do you have?

I honestly have no idea; My father had these heads done about 15 years ago, and they were gone through again about 10+ years ago when he installed a new cam. I have put probably 800 miles on it in the past 8 years, and never had an issue. Never changed anything, just suddenly started making a noise. I'll post a video of the noise later. Gotta reassemble

rustycowll69 said
I noticed in one of the pics the valve stem tips looked a little galled, maybe from poor oiling or maybe just poor machining when heads were done.
Sometimes the addition of hard seats can make the tips uneven. Sometimes sinking the valve seat by "falling asleep on the seat grinder" can sink a valve seat and thus make them uneven.

All valves appear to be even (visually with straight edge). Minimal galling, I wouldn't say it's bad, seeing it in person. The little bit of oil is exaggerating it slightly though the pics.

rustycowll69 said
Keep investigating, you'll figure it out. On the plus side, the engine looks quite clean inside. In the meantime, I think I'd invest in a couple of FilterMag oil filter magnets, just in case there is some metal clearancing going on.

Thanks for the confidence booster, it's really been bringing me down. Also, thanks for the tip on the oil mag, not a bad idear.