Well,

Just a little update. I got everything back together and fired it up.

I have some problems though...

The throttle cable is to short? I have no idea how that happened.

The valves are really loud.

It still smokes a little.

Once it warmed up the radiator hose was hot but the lower one never got warm. Does this mean the thermostat never opened? or i have it in there wrong? i feel like it should have been warm enough to open. its a new OEM unit.

on the positive side the timing was good! The engine sounds powerful. Its very responsive.

But, I'm supposed to start school in Oregon soon and need to get on the road : (