History - I rebuilt the engine and bought a new cam and a shop said my pads were fine so I didn't think to get new pads to mate to the new cam. So I did the break in process with the already broken in pads. The new camshaft isn't OEM and has different lobe specs.

Since then there's been a noise near cylinder 4 that is definitely coming from the valve train. It sounds like a tiny ball peen hammer is hitting metal and speeds up as RPM goes up. I've adjusted and readjusted the valves to .008" and .012" after the break in and it still persists. I've also tightened each valve one by one and brought them down ~.003" just to run it for just a second to see if the noise goes away. I've had not luck in finding the culprit. Maybe because I didn't have new pads there is no way to make up for it being previously mated? Any advise?
Thanks.

 

It could be that your new cam is striking the deflector under the pcv valve?

 

It still makes the noise when the valve cover is off and running. Yes it does get very messy. I got new adjusting screws and made sure they aren’t hitting the inside of the cover too.