Couple of questions:

-how did you bolt the spider in the valley on a non roller block?

-did you have to go with a really odd pushrod length?

-since the lifters are shorter and you are using a small base circle cam, how close does the top of the lifter come to the bottom of the retainer?

 

My guess is he drilled and tapped the bottom to attach the retainer spider, but I'd have to check with him. I also imagine he just flexed the fingers on it a bit to contact the lifters, can't say for sure on that part. As for the Trick Flow push rods he used, if I remember correctly, they're 7.500 length. And the valve springs are Comps with the orange stripe that are supposedly good for .600 lift (although I can't confirm that).

 

I took a look at my lifters yesterday to try and see if they were the cause of the problem. I loosened them all up till they made noise and see if the the motor improved at all....it did not. Also when I loosened them I could see the pushrod start to move up when the spring pressure was removed so I can say they are not stuck solid.

vernw..Id pull those out and get yourself a set of retro-fit hyd rollers and then revisit pushrod length and valvetrain geometry. Those lifters seem to be very different than what is used on a V8..also I wouldnt trust them with a higher spring rate than stock...