Pulled the Mess that was my Timing Chain....

The lifters being hard to remove is normal. The lower portion of the lifter does not move up into the lifter bore in operation so can build up a ring of varnish on the lower edge. This is almost certainly what is hanging them up. Mine were varnished so badly that I had to flip the engine on a stand and drive them out with a maple dowel!

You DO have to put in new lifters with a cam. You CANNOT ever re-use lifters on another new or used cam...never! So get new lifters.

One check you can do for possibility of block wear by the cam sprocket on the front of the block is to check to see how far in the edge of the cam bearing is from the front surface where the cam rides. The front edge of the cam bearing should be 3/32 from the front surface of the block. (Of course, this assumes it was installed right initially....)

The concern for the front block surface being excessively worn is that the cam will ride further back than it should, and the lifter contact points, will be off and cause excess wear. Also, the oil pump gear will be mis-meshed with the cam, and that gear is a weak point. The distributor gear will be off too.

If the front of the block is worn, then I have to wonder where all the metal went! And how well the oil pump is working..... make sure you take that apart and measure the clearances and look at the wear on the internals. Any metal in the pan will go through there first.