Your gear drive is causing your valve train noise. Gear drives are great!!!!
Just kidding, I am just hoping to revive this thread a little, (I am curious to hear the opinions of others on lifter wear, and the other items in 65Caynes latest post) and the whole gear drive discussion seemed to get a lot of attention before. So, forget everything said about gear drives and let me know what you think about Caynes valve train dilema.