[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