Pishta made a good point in that when I go to put my head back on my engine I will not be able to get an accurate compression reading until the lifters have pumped themselves up I.E the truck running for a few minutes.

I dont have whole lot of faith in the carb that has been sitting on the truck un-used for many years. Knowing my luck it will not run the truck without a re-build.

I will re-build the carb but I would like to not only check the compression ( after I have done the head work I am getting thru now ) but I would also like to degree the cam that is in the truck which unless I am mistaken will also require lifters that need to stay up.

Unless I am mistaken this will be the one way of getting an accurate reading on these things.

Can I soak the lifters prior in oil for a few days and expect them to stay up while I am doing my tests or is it just the nature of these things to be constantly leaking down.

I know I have/had good oil flow but I know the flow is not the same just cranking the engine.

Id like to degree the cam that is in there to gain the experience, for this I am assuming I will need lifters that are pumped up.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that the deck height on the block has been altered, just doesnt look to me that the piston is down in the hole and un-godly amount like Ive heard slants are known for.

I am also wondering what cam is in there, ( hence the degreeing part ) possibly it is aftermarket and Id like to advance it the 4 degrees when setting it up as I have heard that will help with the low end torque. ( I have not spent alot of time studying this last part, I do not know if that only applies to an aftermarket cam and is useless with a stock cam )

Thanks for any tips/advice

Hydraulic lifters have a spring inside of them that keep the plunger fully extended when no load is placed on the plunger, i.e. when the valvetrain is not installed. If you have the head off the engine, it is a perfect time to degree the cam and measure the specs of the cam since you can put the dial gauge on the deck of the engine block and read the camshaft movement directly off the lifter. The lifter will not need to be pressurized since the only force on the plunge will be the dial gauge.

Yiou need to find out the cam profile before you start advancing or retarding the cam in relation to the crank. The "advance it four degrees" works on stock cams, and in general advancing a cam improves low end torque, but you need to know what you are working with before you start deciding how much you are going to change the cam timing. This is especially important if you are trying to achieve a certain dynamic compression ratio.

Once you get it all back tegether and want to check compression, you should be able to check the compression by cranking the engine until the oil pressure light goes out on the dash or until you start seeing oil coming out of the rockers on the head. Hydraulic lifters only need 3-4 PSI of oil pressure to "pump up," and this is easily achieved by cranking the engine over with the starter for a little bit. Just make sure the fuel line is detached form the fuel pump so you don't pump gas everywhere.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

I did not know how they worked, thanks for the info. I will be working on all of this over the next several week ( years? )