It was welded all the way up. But it was also a different lifter body size and seat height than the lifter I ended up using. Since I knew the height of the welded lifter, and the height of the real lifter and the amount of preload I had (around .050" IIRC), multiplied by the rocker arm ratio to get the effect at the valve, I was able to get at what I think is pretty close to the true PV clearance #.