The thing is when you do move the cams around the piston are at TDC. So if you use a screw driver (with electrical tape on the tip so you don't scratch anything) you can use a dial indicator and actually gently push on the lifter to see how much you have before it hit the piston... you need 0.040" or 1 mm min clearance, that's if you TDC is perfectly spot on.
GREAT Tip about establishing clearance! Simple and effective with a dial indicator! :thumbup:
Yama -
How are your determining the difference in duration w/out the cams installed? I simply don't have anything to accurately measure rotation so I'm at a loss. Or are you going purely from gear alignment marks for zero?