just finished the valve spacing and put it back together, checked the spacing after the cams went on and it seemed i had done it right. the only problem is when i went ahead and started her i got one hell of a racket. im working on stripping her back down now but i'm not sure what i did wrong.
The only things i can think are i was off by a tooth, or ... there was a point in the middle of working on it when i heard a semi loud ping and realized that the pickup rotor shaft wasn't at the case marking, leading me to believe it had turned quite a ways when the intake cam shaft was still on (though extraordinarily loose, cap bolts were in like 1 turn) not sure what to think, guess i'll know soon enough maybe.
Sorry to hear this. It sounds like you may have kissed the valves.
Lets not jump to conclusions here. Not sure what the noise was but lets hope it wasn't that!
Bring it up to TDC on the compression stroke and see where the cams are pointed. Good luck!