Those are the same style marks I had on my 460 when the rockers rubbed the valve covers. I had to go to a "tall" valve cover to clear mine.

They are definitely rubbing. I suggested doubling up gaskets and do a short test to see if the noise goes away. If it does then he would know and could grind out the inside valve covers or get another taller set.

I think I remember this being an issue with the bronco script covers on efi engines from cb.com? I think I considered them, read about it and ended up going with ford powered mustang efi covers off eBay.

These are similar to the ones I picked up but found my used

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 1614382170

NEW OEM Ford Racing Mustang Black Satin Valve Covers M6000J302R EFI SBF 302 351

they were probably $60 used ;)

i know they were way less than those posted, i think you have a good plan and it'll work out

So it does not really appear that the rockers are making contact with the valve covers. I sort of feel as though I may have an exhaust leak making the noise. I took it around the block and I have very little power when I push hard on the skinny pedal. It also has a low throaty bog sound to it. It also seems like when I go from very little gas to pushing hard on it, there is a lull and almost like an air bubble it jumps over then accelerates. I have tightened down all of the header bolts, collector bolts and upper intake bolts.

I am just not good at diagnosing this stuff on my own. I have no experience and don't want to over analyze stuff unnecessarily. Can exhaust shops easily diagnose that type of thing? Any other thoughts from the experts out there?

But I don't think a leaking header gasket would cause the performance issue you describe

EFI Guy to the rescue. In a short time he was able to help me determine that the roll pin on the cam sensor gear had sheared off and so it wasn't spinning- hence no oil pressure with the cam synchro installed.

The good news is I wasn't . The ok news is that it should hopefully be an easy fix. The undetermined news is whether the short time of driving it without active oil pressure did any real damage. The rockers are all still wet so it didn't run dry or anything....

How long do you suppose it was sheared off for?

Any idea what caused the shear?

I don't know. Did you ever post pictures of it?

What the heck would cause it to shear? That's kind of never heard of gat happening. But glad you found it.

I'm still suspicious of the tow.

I suspect the roll pin sheared because it did not go all the way through the gear, all of the load was placed on one end.

I'm not sure where I came up with the "Melonized Iron" term when researching it a while back, but this is from the engineering doc for the 3.8 sensor:

I would guess that the pin broke as a result of a sudden stop or change in direction.

high pressure oil pumps can cause early fatigue in cam gears. I've never seen one shear the pin.