finally got around to just swapping the springs today. Problem may be larger than i assumed. Turning it over by hand theres a pretty significant clicking backlash-ish sound when the #8 cylinder reaches the top of the stroke and heads down. Thinking i could have smoked a rod bearing or possibly snapped a rod bolt winging it out doing burnouts. haha..

The springs were way overdue(according to lg motorsports), but they were all fine, nothing looked out of line.

Hoping with some oil in her and once its fired up the noise is just my mind, but im ready for the worst. Guess it may be time for a 402 dragonslayer rotating assembly and swapping to that blower cam if its a bad news situation..