The washer shims didn't work very well - rocker angle was way off - so I looked a little closer at the lifter compression during valve movement. The checking springs I'm using are weak enough that one lifter completely overpowers the checking spring - no noticeable compression and no slack. The other lifter I'm using compresses slightly - not enough to worry about. I did buy a spare lifter from AutoZone today and will try something to see if it works. I'm going to inject the spare lifter with epoxy, let it set up and see if it won't give me a solid lifer to work with.... just might work.

The cams are another lesson in learnin'. I brought them home, cleaned and installed them and began trying various eccentric bushings in the driver side sprocket. After a couple of tries, I hit the number on that cam.... 115* C/L, dead on. So, then I tried to dial in the passenger side cam, tried every bushing both ways about 6 times each. I didn't have 2 complete bushing assortments, so I'll need to order some more.

Oh, another finding. When I installed the rear crankshaft seal, the DOHC seal housing was convenient, so I grabbed it, installed the new seal and put it on the block. Today, I cleaned and painted the oil pan, laid down a nice bead of RTV and put the pan on the block. After I had about 4 pan screws in place, I noticed that the holes in the rear seal housing are not aligned with the Montero oil pan rear screw holes. That was a nice mess to clean off the pan and block. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/baby.gif" alt="" /> ....and another 3.0L lesson learned the hard way. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/notooth.gif" alt="" />

Frank