Variable hydraulic lifters for 440 engine

Yes that's is possible BUT
is the Vcan on line yet?
When the choke mechanism is cold, and you set the choke from the driver's seat with at least two pumps, the choke spring should put the throttle up on the fast-idle cam.
During cranking with the choke-blade closed, the low pressure area under it is gonna cause the fuel to spew out of every orifice it can, and huge amounts of gas will enter the intake plenum. Most of it is gonna just puddle there on the floor . But the more volatile molecules are gonna find their way into the cylinders,. But your late-closing intake valves are gonna allow some of it to push back up into the plenum, So its gonna take some cranking to get enough gas in there to support combustion.
As the cold engine begins firing, The manifold vacuum is very low, so at this time the PCV will be at full flow. If your transfers are not open enough, she's gonna run lean, and whatever gas she's getting, some of it is still puddling on the cold plenum floor.That cold engine wants tons and tons of advance. Probably 30ish degrees.
As soon as the engine runs on it it's own; the choke blade has to retract a lil, so the engine can get air. If you have the idle timing retarded to 12*, your Vcan will need to bring in the rest. So your fast idle will need to be fairly high, to activate the can. Your divorced aluminum intake, is gonna run cold during this time, so your warm-up period will need to be longer than usual.
After a minute or two; the rpm will be rising, and you need to kick the fast-idle cam down one or two steps for a more sane idle speed. If this shuts the Vcan off, the engine may still stall, for lack of advance. And by this time the choke-blade might be nearly vertical. If the engine stalls, you will have to reset the choke to keep the blade from being full-off too soon.
But if your low manifold vacuum is too low to crack the choke blade in the first place;well that's a problem! A very big problem.Because now the engine is flooding. And if the Vcan is off line, then it's a bigger problem.

But we can solve this,lol, after we have proved what is the problem;
is it flooding,or
is it leaning.