hey, well its done for now. the procedure called for the intake on number one to be " just starting to open" so i decided to measure that with dial guage rather than try to eye the thing as it was coming down. i followed the procedure in book inplicitely first for all the intake valves, then for each exaust valve. The dial gage was a pain to set up each time but I wanted to be accurate as each valve opened. The result.....perfection! everything is rolling over nicely and all the rocker arms and rods are keeping the setting i originally set.
When I started.. rolled over from number one which i had set at TDC on the heel of the cam and went to number four to do the same. I looked at number one and both push rods were rattling a good 1/4 inch and falling out from under the ***** in the rocker arms. I bailed right to the manual after seeing that!your right it's a real pain removing everything oput of your way to get in there so I wanted this to go right...no third option, thats for sure! I did not necessarily have to roll a full 360 to set each valve either. I guess it has more to do with overlap and duration, stuff like that, although the piston is at the top of its stroke in each case.I put some Lubriplate on each valve stem top and drenched the whole work in STP so run in will go easy. I got everything buckled back up just before dark at 9pm , started at 10 this morning. I'm going to start it tomorrow.The procedure was - - position number one intake at just and set number five intake, - 4, set 3 - 2, set 6 -5, set 1 - 3,set 4 and 6, set 2 then repeat the same for each exaust and your done...about one half hour.Thanks for your insight BSmitty, this has worked...phew! finally! Solid lifters are the way to go , I put in neoprene gaskets, because it's like you said..I'll be at it again in 12,000. I set them at .014 for the intakes and .016 for the exausts with a feeler gage on the tight side.

 

Glad to hear about your success. I love to do my own work, and obviosly you do as well, but doing it twice isn't nearly as fun! I'm glad you found the manual useful, I know it was well worth the money to me when I did my adjustment. Take care...