As far as the gasket... That kind of sucks... Because they were figuring my compression ratio to be 10:1, but then they used the gasket that came with the Fel-Pro kit, which was thicker then they anticipated... so they lowered to compression ratio to be about 9:9 or so. What exactly the thickness of the gaskets was now, I don't recall?? Sorry.
The fact that EVERY lifter rattles... I think tells me it's the push rod length. I think?
Can I just make square shims from aluminum cans? I don't know what else would be easy to cut to size. I guess I can mill around a hardware store for a while.
Also I can't really check preload without new lifters anyhow, right? Don't they need to be pumped up to check the preload?