How tight to set solid lifters

Well I'm confused. I did this job on my poly 2 weeks back. The lash adjusters don't have a lock nut, they are an interference fit and one was loose. I pulled the valve cover due to the ticking noise and discovered it backed right off, so I thought I'd check them all.
First time I've ever done it and I used the EOIC method which worked fine. But I was unsure of the cold vs hot measurements so started researching.
From what I found I thought iron to iron you set looser when cold. The cam card says .014 on exhaust and intake so I set them all to .016. They were all around that anyway, except the one that was loose obviously. The car runs super smooth with them at this looser cold setting.
The only way to confirm it is to pull a valve cover and remeasure when hot as suggested.
I'm intrigued now as to which is correct, I might try this tomorrow and report my findings.
20240115_152642.jpg