ok, making progress. i think. come to find out, my 1 mark on my distr. is not really 1. its 3. which would explain hopefully my initial "sluggish, misfiring" problem. before i even touched the valves. which should make a whole lot more sense now. especially now that i realized where on the valves the feeler gauge actually goes (dont ask). then i ran out of daylight. so getting there..
thanks for all your help.