I don't have to worry about keeping the distributor lined up, I have to swap my old one in anyway. The donor for this motor is a FI Impulse and its going into a carb'd Trooper, different dizzys. Good tip and something I had not thought about.

I also like the rope trick, simple yet effective.

It sounds like I'm ok with my original thinking of just putting #1/4 at TDC, doing those valves, then puting 2/3 up and doing them. If I run into trouble getting it back together I can always use air to hold the valves up.

Unless something is wrong with the springs I've got I don't plan to change anything. With this motor coming from an Impulse I'll be getting a cam with a bit more duration, and that is about all I plan to do with it for the time being.