put a new cam/milled 243 heads(.030) w/.041 head gasket on my 5.3. ordered 7.375 p/r. Got everything in and when we started it, it made alot of valvetrain noise and didn't get any quieter after about a minute. I reinstall the factory p/r (7,4 iirc) fired her up and noise went away after about 30 seconds. seems to run fine, w/minimal noise if any. question is: am i getting all of the performance out of the cam/head combo. cam is 218/222 w/.598 lift.

 

Did you measure with a PR length checker? You should be using something a lot shorter than 7.375 for that combo. You not only milled the heads .030", but you're also using thinner head gaskets. Total, your about .042" lower than stock. I'm .035" lower than stock and am using 7.325 PRs.

 

You didn't factor in the change in the base circle of the camshaft

 

did i not give enuf time for the oil to pump up the lifters on my initial install? I didn't want to tear anything up.

 

Possibly, but the question is what did you measure for zero lash with the adjustable pushrod?

 

I thought that was a constant. Guess not

 

regretably i did not measure, i got my cam specd from pat g with all of my parameters and that was the p/r he recomended.

 

How many turns to torque the rocker bolts after 0-lash?