Thanks fellas. That makes me feel a lot better now that you have said that.
Last night I made to solid lifters with washers as
@IDIBRONCO had described. For me, four #6 washers at the bottom, in the spring cup, and five #10 washers on top of that, fit just right with the retainer clip barely fitting in.
Today I checked the piston to valve clearance with playdoh. I was nervous about what would happen if contact happened so first I tried without bolting the heads all the way down so they could lift if anything happened. But this doesn't work because the cam will lift the heads before it opens the valve springs. So I then tried with the bolts just snugged down, not compressing the head gasket on one piston. Plenty of clearance at .090 for intake and exhaust. So then I torqued the head down and checked all cylinders. Clearances were kind of all over the place with the intake ranging from .060 to .080. Exhaust ranged from .050 to .085. For the next head I used the same already compressed gasket and just snugged the bolts down. Intake clearances ranged from .075 to .095 and exhaust from .065 to .100. This side was probably larger because I didn't torque the bolts. Even torqed there would have been plenty of clearance.