[Adger Smith]

Darrin,
You are on to something, but it's not that simple. At the rocker arm you are dealing with 3 angles. The angle of the pushrod to the lifter. The angle of the stud and the angle of the valve stem. If you extend these angles up they will meet at some point. The trick is to get the rocker in the correct position to get the desired ratio. The rocker ratio can be altered by moving the position of the rocker up and down these angles. When you do a geometry set up you have to stick with all the components or at least their sizes/shapes. Shorten the lifter or pushrod and the back of the rocker drops. That pulls it down the angle of the stud and can roll the rounded pad of the rocker back on the valve tip. Geometry changes. Wade, don't feel bad. My worst DQ was a blessing. Right side wheelbase came up short by 1/4 inch. Lost #1 position and record...Turns out there were problems with the right front suspension. The DQ forced us to look at things. Caught it before it broke and created real problems. I will bet you will find some othere areas of your engine to improve while you have it apart fixing the geometry problems.