you know the drill; only one variable/step at a time. If damper is suspect, do R&R it.Yes but not conventional. No difference
Many...Over 100k if guessing...Idk about abuse
Yes... I had a thread discussing it. They all looked good ... I cleaned them well. They all pumped up tight...cam lobes seemed ok afaik....even cleaned my oil filter adapter recently...
The only thing that seems to help is more preload. If I had to guess, my lifters were well over a turn past zero lash. After getting into all of this, I've never been back to that far. Right now I'm around 3/4 turn. But I get worse idle and the performance doesn't seem as good with more preload so I'm not really wanting to go more. Just not sure what lifters or cam I have....
I did recently notice a slight wobble in my torsional damper... Maybe that's why I'm getting a missy feeling with more preload...idk...
I'll figure it out..definitely going to change damper next....
The tapping at start is very short but sometimes I'll get a 20 second deal...don't want to derail this too much...
Have you removed and then closely inspected PRs, rockers + balls?