First, sorry about the Gear Drive question earlier....I didnt know you guys would beat it to death like you did...

I have a fresh rebuilt BBC, hydraulic, stamped 1.7:1 steel rockers, and my valve train seems to be making an excessive amount of noise on one side of the motor. I re-tightened all of the header bolts (thinking is was a header leak making noise) and that did not help. I have tried adjusting 1/4 to 1/2 turn, and even 3/4 of a turn past "zero lash" and when I went 3/4 it seemed to quiet the noise somewhat (these were static adjustments).

I removed the valve cover, fired her up, and put a barnyard stethoscope (broom stick) to each rocker stud and some are definitely "rap, rap, rapping" and some are nice and quiet, so I then tried the hot adjustment but cannot determine when or if my adjustments were making any difference due to engine noise and the fact that more than one lifter is knocking. I didnt want to tighten too much for fear of pushing a valve into my piston. Is that a concern or will I notice a change in idle quality before something like that happens?

I found this procedure posted by Denny and was wondering if anyone (Denny esp.) would care to try and explain it differently?

With the engine running, you back off the rocker adjustment until you here it tapping. (One at a time). Next, make sure your socket does not bottom out over the adjusting nut.
Tighten until you hear the tapping just get quite.
Now, read this careful: Put your ratchet and socket on the adjusting nut, not bottomed out, and get the handle positioned so you know where each Quarter turn will stop.
Turn, tighten very slowly, only put a small amount of pressure on the ratchet, and you will feel it go easy, stop, go easy, stop.
This is happening because each time the rocker goes up and down, it takes up space, and pushes the oil out of the lifter(bleeds off).
Then, let it stablelize, (when engine speed picks back up).
Then, go for the next quarter turn, just like the first quarter turn you did.
After you set the last one, the engine will then be breathing in syc. You will actually hear this.

The engine starts great, runs great (a little on the rich side as I noticed from all of my plugs), pulls about 19" of vac at 700rpm.

I am trying to determine if I am adjusting wrong or if I have some bad lifters. People have told me that BBC valve trains are noisy but I dont think what I am hearing on the motor is correct.

Thanks all...