Fresh engine, wiped cam? Tick? (new pics added)

Make sure you contact the shop that built the engine. Did they offer any kind of warranty on their work? If so, any warranty might be voided if you do the work.
When I built engines for a living, and someone had an issue, (which happened only once - it was a BBC), any warranty or guarantee was voided if it was obvious the owner worked on the engine before bringing it to the shop. In the case above, the owner brought the car back saying there was a bad miss. When I pulled the p/s valve cover, I could tell the owner had removed it at least once. He had tried adjusting the valves and backed one rocker way off and put the valve cover back on. It then bent a pushrod when he fired it up. He tried blaming me but once I pointed out how I knew he had worked on the engine, he shut up and paid for my re-work.
The manifold has to come off so you can look inside the engine. If you think you're wiping the cam and/or lifters, just dropping in new lifters is wasting your money and time and prolonging the engine damage.
The noise might be something as simple as a rocker hitting the baffle in the valve cover. Good luck.