curious about valve lash setting/check

Don't crank them down any more. I believe the problem may be that you were not on the base circle of some of the camshaft lobes, so cranking them down more could only exasperate the issue.
you could be right Rusty, but I was very careful to do the 90 degree rotation, set two, 90 more, set two, etc. the engine fire right up as soon as it got gas, and sounded good, except for the chatter, if that helps.