Jim: as we talked about yesterday here is a photo of the inside of the valve cover. I did not touch it with a rag or anything.

worst day in my own Z history was when I thought my car's "cam timing" was off and it turned out to be a separated harmonic balancer (outer grooved belt part was free spinning on the bolted-to-the-crank center part). Needless to point out, TDC wasn't TDC, and my "adjustments" didn't go too well. Looking back, I can't believe the lack of caution on my part to not catch the fault before it caused the inevitable you know what...My motor's valves were nowhere nearly as bad as those. I can still remember the godawful noise the motor made when I turned it over--kind of a tortured mechanical whooping sound.

It always pays to double check your baseline settings. I learned an expensive lesson, but I have nice new stainless steel valves!