Joe wrote:
The thought of something wrong with the spring/seat did cross my mind. That said, I did order new valve springs and seats, too. I basically ordered all the valve components that were non-specific to whether it was an exhaust or intake valve. I did read up on installing new valves and the valve guides, reaming the guides and refacing the the valve stems in the manual... this was actually why I initially opted not to buy the gauge the Merritt.

Are you referring to this:https://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?parta~dyndetail~Z5Z5Z50000022d~Z5Z5Z57221~P30.00~~~~S6SZ1CSUP075109116806a~Z5Z5Z5~Z5Z5Z50000022D

Unfortunately, I didn't do a leak down test, but I'm sure there's going to be some leakiness. We'll see how this goes.