Best engine ever built.
I had a young fella tell me the engine in my truck was in sad shape. “Just listen to those valves rattle, you need to rebuild it quick.”
I told him I would worry when the valves *stopped* rattling.
Drove another 6 years with no problem.
Fella I sold it to still drives it every day.
The valves still rattle nicely.
30 years later I still miss that truck.
LOUD VALVES SAVE LIVES!
I have a '74 boat with a 318. The valvetrain has always rattled above 2500 rpm. A couple of years back, I had to replace the original engine and used a rebuilt '89 318.
The boat engine runs backwards, so I looked for a reverse rotation (roller) cam for the '89. None are available. I took only the cam, the lifters, the pushrods, the rocker arms, and the distributor from the '74 engine, and installed them in the '89 engine to reverse it's rotation. I carefully inspected each item to assure it was in perfect shape.
The new engine rattles above 2500 rpm. It sounds absolutely no different then the '74.