Ok - all the lifters cleaned up nicely...at least as best I can determine they did. All were 'stuck', all came apart, all cleaned up nicely, all the parts and rollers looked good, all are reassembled, and now all have a bit of 'squish', settling up against the clips.

So - lifter preload. I'm going with a Comp Cams bump stick (new core, not a re-grind), all else is stock-OE - stock non-adjustable rockers, stock push rods, stock everything. My question now is...with nothing 'adjustable'...do I need to 'care' about lifter preload? Other than getting different length push rods can I even do anything about it? Or just bolt it all up and 'go'?

In order to even check preload I presume I'd need a single solid lifter (...suppose I can make one...), put some marking blue on a valve tip, then bolt everything up and check the 'drag marks', and if it's nice n short and hopefully 'centered' then use the existing push rods...right? If it's got long drag marks then I'd need to address custom length push rods? Then, shove feeler gauges in-between the rocker tips and valves and that's the pre-load? Is that something I even need to worry about? I suppose with a non-OE cam in there the answer could be 'yes, and that's why you need to measure the pre-load'...or I can also suppose the answer is 'nope - won't matter - the lifters will handle any difference between the OE cam and Comp cam'.

- Sam