Well the last time this happened it was inevitable, I believe.
My truck sat in my driveway for 8 years with no hood and only tap water in the block. At the point in time that it was parked, it already had 80,000 miles on the rebuild that was done in 1992, truck was parked in 2005 until 2013 when I got it back on the road. I only regasketed it, valve covers, oil pan, intake manifold, new timing set, and balancer installed. I got 4,000 miles out of it when the gasket blew. Then I rebuilt the whole thing and here I am about 4 years later and 33,000 miles later.
When i rebuilt the motor i did everything myself that i could possibly do in my garage. Installed camshaft, pistons, crankshaft, heads, adjusted valves cut my own spark plug wires. Hei, all for my first time. Oh and I rewired the truck with an American autowire kit while the engine was out. Never done that before either. Took me 40 hours mostly because j didnt have the correct crimp tool in addition to soldering and heat shrink tubing every connection. Anyways. I turned the key after it was all back together and it started on the second turn of the key. I broke in the camshaft and drove it to get a burger and a milkshake 2 miles away because I felt I had actually achieved something on my own for myself for once in my life. The truck ran like crap. Timing was close but it was running lean and the valves needed to be readjusted so I took it to my mechanic for a "tune-up" when I went to pick it up he asked me where I got the motor. I told him I built it myself. He asked who helped me. I told him nobody, besides a couple of buddies for the heavy lifting. He just stood there and said, i have to admit you did a good job for your first motor. I cant say if you'll get 100k out of it, and he said he wasnt sure he would let me do it in his shop. I told him he didnt want to hire me, im to slow a mechanic. I just do it out of necessity and now more as a hobby. There, I think that sums up my c10 experience.
Heads are back on.
Should i install pushrods and then retorque the cylinder head bolts? Or wait a while longer and retorque them and then install and adjust valves?