I had assumed the pushrod length was going to be stock. - Guess I should have done more research first. I'm really pissed off at myself for not looking more closely at the limited adjustment we had. Inexperience really bit me in the butt this time.
I had a lot of guys tell me to make the lash adjustment by tightening until the pushrods were more difficult to rotate and then go another 1/2 turn tighter. Well, after reading up more I've seen that some folks say that this can be misleading because not everyone judges the rotational drag the same. Now (from what I'm reading) it's best to watch for when the vertical movement of the pushrods is zero and then adjust an additional 1/8 to 1/2 turn.
I've always pre-filled new lifters with oil because I'd been concerned about potential lifter collapse. A buddy of mine had told me that he'd had one new hydraulic lifter pop apart on a build shortly after firing it up (when he was putting them in dry). He thought the lack of oil had allowed it to collapse. Since then he's been filling them first. - And that's the way I've always done it. - Usually had really good luck letting them soak submerged in a can with light weight oil.