So, since this thread evolved into discussing my noise issue I figured I should give an update. I have replaced all the springs with the mopar performance springs. Along the way I found that the head I recently installed from Cylinder Heads International had 4 exhaust valves and two intake valves leaking cold. So I pulled the head and lapped the valves to correct this issue. Since I had the head off, I decided to swap out the lifters, thinking that this may have been the issue. Most of the lifters looked good, but one on cylinder 1 had a circular mark on the face of the lifter. So I replaced all the lifters with new Comp Cam Lifters, added their Zinc additive with some 10w30 oil. Fired it up and went through the cam break in process. There was some noise from the start, although slight. After about 10 minutes the noise (same as the old one) came back and was louder than before. I continued with the breakin and once I was done I shut down and let it cool off. I drained the oil and put some fresh 10w30 in and fired it up, noise was still there and sounded similar to before. Drove it around about 30 miles with no change. So after no change with the noise, I decided to drop the pan and inspect the bottom end. Bearings were all tight .0015 on rods, but noticed fine metal partials in the oil pan. So looking a little more, noticed two of the cam lobes looked porous and grey and flatter than the rest. After tearing the engine down completely, found two cam lobes were flattened (or on their way). The lifters associated were severely dished with a circular groove on the face. I also found #1 and #3 cam bearings had some wear.
So long story short, Spoke with Russ and will be building a stroker with his custom pistons and free floating rods and I will be ordering a Nitrated Cam from him as well and plan to use the Crower Cam Saver lifters.
Right now I'm getting the block ready to take to the machine shop.
On a side not, I have been through thousands of threads on this forum over the last couple years and have seen Russ's name come up dozens of times, all saying good things about him. I can definitely say they are all true. Prior to making this decision, I reached out to Russ to get some pricing and weigh my options and get some answers to a few lingering questions I had. He spent over 45 min on the phone with me explaining my options and giving me a lot of history and share his knowledge. All of this was for a guy simply thinking about building a stroker. I think that says a lot.