long story short, yes, I'm still working on this. . .thanks for the pic xeroinfinity, it was quite helpful. all my pushrods were in the correct places, but two of my rocker arms were loose. . .aparently some idiot didn't torque them down correctly. I'm thinking that was the cause of tapping that I heard, as well as the slight rough running.
On to the question of the day. is there supposed to be an o-ring where the fuel line attaches to the fuel rail? It seems kinda loose and I would expect that if I put fuel pressure to it I would be spraying fuel all over the place. There wasn't an o-ring on the line when I took it off (unless it broke and flew off somewhere before I saw) but it was really snug when I took it off, now not so much.