'01 GT: Valvetrain Whine?

Recently I noticed that my car seems to make more of a high-pitched whine at 3,000+ RPM than before. She's a 2001 GT with a stick-shift. The noise is not deafening, just loud enough so that I notice.

At first I hoped it was a pulley tensioner or idler pulley burning up. But now I am starting to wonder if the noise is valvetrain-related. I even put my ear on the oil filler cap and opened the throttle by hand. And, sure enough, I could hear the high-pitch noise more clearly. Otherwise,the performance of the car seems to be OK.

I read the TSB about the "ticking noise" that can be heard at the left front fenderwell on some 4.6L SOHC cars. I remember following the TSB diagnostic procedure myself, and thinking that my car passed the test. So I do not think I suffer from the "ticking noise," at least not to a great extent.

But I am not liking this whine. Can anyone help? Is this normal behavior? I am inclined to say that it's not, since the car was very quiet before. The car is out of warranty. Is there something I can have adjusted, e.g. cam chain tension, that might help? Or am I just screwed? If I need new heads, I may just trade the car in. I don't like owning something half-a$$ed, nor do I see the economic value in putting brand new heads on the car.

This really sucks... I really want to keep the car, but I want her to run well.

I run Motorcraft 5W20 as recommended. I just changed the oil a couple of days before I heard the whine. The oil level is within the correct range on the dipstick, there are no air bubbles in the oil, and the pressure reading is normal at the gauge cluster.

I think that the whining could be due to a cam bearing failure, or cam bearing weakness. I believe this is true regardless of whether oil is getting up there or not.

What I am hearing inside the car may be transmission noise. It does seem to be more prevalent in 1st and 2nd gears (which have always been noisy anyway). However, I am more disturbed by the fact that a similar noise seemed to be evident when I put my ear on the oil filler cap.

I guess my questions at this point are:

1) How much valvetrain noise has been experienced on otherwise normal, long-lasting 4.6L 2V cars in the past?

2) Has anyone else experienced something similar, and if so what was the ultimate outcome?

And, somewhat off-topic:

3) Does the "ticking" TSB affect only the driver's side cylinder head? It seems to, since it mentions listening at the left side, only mentions a single replacement head assembly part number, etc.

If the answer to #3 is yes, I guess that is good. That would seem to indicate that known problems are mostly with the driver's side head assembly, and that what I'm hearing at the oil filler cap (on the passenger's side assembly) is either normal or (less likely) related to some other, less common problem.

I may get a mechanic to listen to the noise. I think most honest general mechanics would probably say not to worry about it. I guess that is worth a little peace of mind, and there may be some truth to the argument that "it's normal." Of course, I know a few mechanics who would never admit a Ford was running properly to save their mother's life. And I may have a hard time finding a specialist in Modular motors here in Gulfport, MS.

vidmaster - my car (A 5-speed) makes that noise in 1st and 2nd (especially below 2500 RPM), and in my experience such a noise is pretty typical of stickshifts, at least those in relatively inexpensive cars. But I don't know if the automatic transmission should make that noise.

After I made my last post, I realized that the 4.6L doesn't have camshaft bearings. So I guess that's good and bad... it seems like an omission on Ford's part, but at the same time there's no way I have a spun or weak cam bearing.

I guess Modular motors as a whole lack camshaft bearings; is that true? Is it even true of the 2003 Cobra motor and the Ford GT motor? Is this approach typical of modern engines? What was Ford's motivation... just saving $12 worth of bearing inserts? Is this a design flaw?