curious about valve lash setting/check

...by the way 69, using .010 seemed to give me a 1 1/2 hour clocking early to the actual pre load start point, sound about right to you? see you all tomorrow.
If by "1 1/2 hour clocking" you mean about 1/8 of a turn, yeah that's probably about right. Whether you tighten it 1/2 turn, or 5/8 turn, or 3/4 turn from that point really should not matter much.