[Formulabruce]

Did you go through the chevy style pre run valve adjustment, after the lifters were up? You may have overtightened them, and thus not getting much compression. I like to do chevys with a oil splash clip on each rocker and warm, and covers off. I even have a set of old covers with a big slice down the top so I could do the adj with covers on ( oil containment)
just some thoughts, has happened to me in the past... My E heads are like a chevy and left them pretty loose for start up. ( I do run stock ratio rollers though)Re adjust and all was well once warmed up

[njsteve]

Yes, adjusted them twice. Used 16 seperate positions. Once push rod was at contact point, I added an additional 1/3 turn. Pulled the drivers side valve cover and verified that they are not leaving the valves open. (rocker arm has slack)

Im going to buy a cannister type block/coolant heater today and hook it to the heater lines to warm up the engine and coolant. The one in my diesel brings the engine to 175 degrees in the winter. Maybe that will help the cranking speed.

Once get it warmed up i will do a compression check to see what's up.