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Yes, the valves must absolutely be above their seat when the valve springs are not installed. In fact they should be above their seat by about the same spec that you found with the checking gage.

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Thanks Ross, good to know. Without measuring it seems like the valves are above the seat by a good amount more than what I gauged the stems at. But if the stems all spec'd out fine then I assume I'm still okay.

One other question, no prefilling the lifters with oil, correct?

I would not prefill them, assuming they are lubricated on assembly.

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They probably all still have kerosene left over in them. So clean all that out and wipe down with oil, then reassemble?

So I got a good start on getting the valves back in tonight. But I found about halfway through that the lifters should be totally dry before putting in the engine. The first few cylinders I had cleaned out the leftover kerosene out of the lifters, then wiped a bit of clean oil on the plunger body and assembled, then put them in the car. Turns out the manual advises to have the lifters totally dry:



So now my question is should I go ahead and finish the reassembly of the remaining valve, and assume that the lifters I oiled will be okay? Or should I remove the lifters I had oiled and redo them? I can't say I'm super excited about removing all those valves again. It's probably 8 lifters that would need to come out and get cleaned and dried.

I have always ignored that practice and install the lifters with the kerosene in them. As the viscosity is so low the lifter will not hold a valve open off its seat and will leak down just like on the tester. The remainder is very quickly expelled and replaced with engine oil upon startup.

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Good to know. Any concerns with oil being between the two lifter pieces? Not filling the body but just a film between the two pieces. With it being thicker than the kerosene I worry that it won't leak out or allow the lifter to pump up.