Risk of ignoring lifter noise?

[VetteMed]

Got the driver's side cam cover pulled (the noise was most prominent in this area). I really don't think anything "looks" any different from about 7k miles ago, which was the last time the cam covers were off, prior this noise developing.

There is some scoring on the bearing surfaces of the cam cover, but I don't know how much of that is normal wear.

Is there any way to determine which lifter(s) are bad, if any? I notice that when the cams are positioned such that the valves are closed, the lifters are able to spin / rotate, is this normal?

The wear strip on the LH chain guide is broken, but it does not appear any worse than 7k miles ago.

The edges of some of the timing chain links appear "polished", but I figure that's normal wear.


SO, where do I go from here?

Thanks,
Andrew