I wouldn't like it either. Noise in an engine part that's normally supposed to be quiet is indicative of no oil. That's never a good thing. Here's what I'm thinking. I bet that camshaft was ground on a reduced base circle, like a regrind. With Summit outsourcing their camshaft line now, instead of Crane providing them, it wouldn't surprise me if it WAS a regrind. I don't believe there's any way to tell though.
However, you CAN tell if you don't have enough lifter preload when it's cold before you start it for the first time. I know, a little bit of a pain, but get the valve covers off and go down the line and check to see if any pushrods and rockers are overly loose. That would tell you that the camshaft is possibly ground on a reduced base circle.
If that's the case, you have a couple of options. The easiest would be to measure for new pushrods and get the correct length. Then, of course, you could go with adjustable rockers.
It "could" be cheap *** lifters, but there's an easy enough way to check by removing the valve covers and noting if you have any really loose rockers and pushrods.
The problem is, since those camshafts are now outsourced, I bet nobody at Summit can give you any details regarding them. Who the hell knows what they are now or where they come from? They might be pulling them out of a junk core pile, cleaning them up, regrinding them and sending them to Summit. You won't find anybody that can tell......or will tell you if they know.
IMO, even on a dead stock build, you're doing yourself a favor to convert these engines to an adjustable valve train. That way you can get the lifter preload dead right. THEN if you have noise issues,, you KNOW it's a shitty lifter.
As it is now, you don't know "for sure".
