Well, I got on the phone with the Comp Cams Tech line. The person I got on the other hand was NOT at all in a rush to just throw some fancy terms at me and write-off the whole thing as "user error", point being: we had what felt like a decent and focused conversation.

After I described the issue he asked how long the cam sat on the shelft. Well, the piece was ground in May of 2014, I got it about a year later as an on-line buy, and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since. The original box, but just sitting.

His answer was: "hmm, well, it could have literally bent...by sitting on the journals just like that, for that long of a time, we have seen this type of stuff before."

Now, I don't quite know what to make of that, however for something as heavy as a crank it is always advised to store it by standing it up on it's end.

Either way, he suggested I try to check the run-out on the cam, which means I'll see if I can check against one of the journals, although I'm still thinking this is a gear teeth issue since the cam fits quite fine when installed w/o the oil-pump gear in place and it would appear there is no binding between the cam journals and the cam bearings in the block.

Anyways, more to follow...appreciate all the feedback so far!