I’ve been waiting to do any engine work until I got it in the car, but I decided to go ahead and check to see if things were approximately going to work or not. I took a couple of the lifters that came with the rebuild kit and soaked them in oil so that they wouldn’t compress too much when checking things. Then I dropped them into the engine in a cylinder where the valves were close to open (though not fully), put my old head gasket on, and set the head on. I just bolted the corners down most of the way to keep it from shifting. Then I put in a couple of old pushrods and bolted on the rocker assembly.

After tightening the rockers, I checked the valve springs. The ones where the valves were mostly open were definitely coil binding. The top two coils are touching and so are the lower two. It’s not the whole spring or anything, but it’d definitely mess things up if I ran it like this. :/

So now I need to figure out the best way to fix it. I’m guessing I’ll need new valve springs, but I think the only other ones that’ll work with my cam are either single springs with dampers or a dual spring. From what I understand, both will need some head machining to fit Viton seals and what not.