Thanks guys! The car is an 82.
the whole procedure described in Waynes book is pretty straightforward it seems. The only thing that was/is throwing my head off is the part where he describes that after getting the dial indicator to the specified valve lift, you're supposed to remove the pin and then rotate the crank the remaining little bit back to TDC then install the pin in the camgear hole it fits into now. On my motor, it seems that I have to rotate darn near a full 360 degrees just to get that 1mm reading on the indicator, which made me nervous that I'm doing something wrong. Definitely doesn't go past 360 degrees, but if I put on a degree wheel and it cam to 358.5 degrees I wouldn't be surprised in the least.
I've been typing all sorts of search querries into the search feature on the site here and reading other peoples posts lately but haven't found much of use to my issue. Other than some saying that sometimes you have to remove the cam gear(s) from the cam and chain completely and rotate them a little bit, then reinstall to orient them differently on the cam.
But if I'm technically supposed to see that specified amount of lift at TDC then I guess it's good to go. Basically it's TDC right before the intake stroke, so the exhaust valve should just be closing(or damn near completely closed) and the intake valve should just be opening, which it is.
Such a cool setup, but so damn confusing to newguys like myself
Thanks again!!