just had to mess with it

Let me bring this up again. Now having to replace a chipped piston, I decided to check duration, while one head is off.#6, was gonna do it 180 off. One lifter had bleed down, so I put them in a container of oil, and pumped. One pumped up, the other one wouldn't fart a air bubble. So I checked the rest- 1/2 of the lifters, even under spring pressure, are tight; rest bled down, one month. All random.
I was thinking of finding 2 good lifters in there, use them temp, just for checking purposes.
Do you think I just need to throw new lifters in it, and the 30 degree initial advance problem will go away?