I've a 440 & pulled the intake manifold to reinstall the tin pan b/c of oil gathering around #6 cyl manifold bolt. I noticed 2 items & need some opinions to see if I 've got some issues developing. 1. Looking into the cyl heads I observed some serious oil deposits on the valve stems & the top of the valves. Is there a way to reduce or eliminate these deposits? I know the deposits are there b/c the motor was sucking in oil from under the tin pan. 2. 3 cam lobes had wear on only the back half of the lobe rather than the whole lobe. I forgot to note whether the lobes were for intake or exhaust valves. Is something going on w/ the cam. Is the cam "walking"? The cam is a Comp hydr w/ .474 lift, duration is about 225 give or take. The valve train has been solid; they were adjusted initially & haven't had to be re-adjusted. B/c the block & heads were milled, the rockers are adjusters. The rockers are Crane's iron rollers. The motor has about 7,000 miles on it; runs well; starts up every time; pulls hard. Outside of chasing vacum & oil leaks on the intake manifold, the motor has not given me any performance problems. The car is driven frequently-both city & hwy & hasn't seen the track in about 5 years.

I wonder if you are actually seeing wear on the cam or just the polished area where the lifter rides. Make sure to put a sealer on the intake bolts. If you look you can see that they go into the heads then into air space in the lifter valley. Very common for oil to walk its way up the threads and pool in the valley tin. Oil deposits could also becoming from guide wear.

The two? issues you have here ......

Severe burned-oil-deposits on the back of the valves and on the stems is more likely loose guides. The cam lobes ? ..... I have made it a practice to mark each lifter on the top with a dab of white paint ...so it can be EZily observed if there is proper lifter rotation.

The valve guides can wear that fast.

Were the guides done recently ?

IF the cam show wear the bases of the same lifters would also be showing a wear patter and starting to cup. When a cam starts to wear it is a fast wear.

The entire heads were rebuilt-new guides, valves,valve springs,reatainers, hardened exhaust seats, mild port job when the motor was sent off to the machinist, that was back in '99. Since then, 7,000 miles on the motor; no smoke on the first start of the day or when you decelerate which I've always understood as signs of bad guides.

You personally had these done at a shop that you know ? They claimed all new valves and retainers? What type of retainers are they ?

cam lobes are ground on an angle so they spin the lifters in their bores. i would say ware on one end of the lobe is normal.

Techron and seafoam are designed to remove those deposits, but if you have the intake off, check the seals/guides.

Doc Fiberglass- The shop was recommended to me by a guy who had his 360 worked on. Personally, back in the late 90s I was new to doing this kind of speciality work on a motor, so I had to trust my fellow man on this one. I know the valves are new b/c when the machinist started to work on the heads, there were cracks in the valve seats that were fixed by going to the next size in valves. I know Manley valves were used, so I'm assuming so were Manley retainers.
The manifold has already been installed. I wasn't sure about cleaning the oil deposits b/c I wasn't sure what kind of damage would occur if the cleaning material & flecks of junk got into the cyl walls.

fal .... I just pulled-down a set of 906 heads for a guy who paid for a lot of work .. that some of it was simply NOT DONE. Specifically ... he paid for bronze guides ...and there was no guide work at all. There appeared to be some seat and valve grinding .. but with loose guides .... that work is basically a waste.

I would be sceptical here. New(and larger) valves, seats, guides and retainers ? ... that would not be all that hard to confirm.