The .075 in the hole would be the higher car pistons. The .045" in the hole is not making sense to me... any way those are maybe early 90's Magnum truck engines? Re-check the 'in-the-hole' measurement very carefully, and if it truly .045" then that a notable improvement; that gives you nearly 0.5 point in CR. (And we're assuming either flat tops or flat tops with 4 small eyebrows.)
(FWIW, the truck pistons that are very low CR were around .100-.110" in the hole.)
You asked about seeing the lifters rotating; there are 2 ways:
- Mark the pushrods with a mark along the upper side with a light colored grease pencil or welders pencil. (Makes it easy to see the rotation). Turn the engine over by hand with it all assembled and look to see that the marks move around for each pushrod.
- If you have some old valve covers, take a pair, cut out large rectangular holes to take the tops off, put in some gaskets, and and then you can watch the pushrods 'live'. This way is more fun but by the time you get around to looking closely at them all at startup, the damage may be done.
As for cranking, I have done as much as 15-20 seconds with a cam with moderately heavy valve springs, and not had any issues. I could not tell you how long is too much, just that less is safer, but if you have stock valve springs, then it is going to be less critical IMHO. BTW I always use a moly based cam lube, which many folks think gives better protection, not the runny kind.
