[tcbnj]

Thanks for the quick replies folks. The Goat is my daily driver with more than 111,000 miles. She's been living with a rattling sound which I think is coming from the valve train for more than a year which I think is slowly getting worse. I'm thinking the rattle could be a bad lifter as I have replaced the rocker arms with Comp Golds & went to a smaller pushrod (a deceased shop previously installed a Comp cam with .610 lift & LS7 lifters). Also for the last year or so the Goat has had inconsistent oil pressure at idle - ranges from 35/40 psi (normal) to 15/20 and occasionally lower (scary when sitting in traffic on the way home from work!). I suspect past sloppy workmanship included debris falling in the oil passages with some trapped in the oil pump's pressure relief valve causing the valve to stick open.

Because she now has over 111,000 miles the timing of a rebuild might not be 100% premature.