Okay, here is an update;
1st off - IMO, valve shims suck ass!
What a fargin stupid idea!
I much prefer the 10mm wrench and screwdriver method I'm used to with Jap cars..
So after mis-measuring and ordering the wrong shit 3 times ($80.00 worth of shims and 3 or so weeks of waiting for delivery), I am over it.
But I have a buddy that used to own a cycle repair shop (previously unknown to me) and he gave me a bunch of shims (K&L, and he gave them to me for free of course, go figure) and we fired it up yesterday.
It is still noisy, although better than before.
I have heard that these things we're noisy (although he didn't seem to think that it sounded that bad) but to me, it's still noisy. But it's definitely better now with the tighter shims in it.
Onwards...
It is running much richer now with the new air filter and (used) air cleaner, and the radiator cap didn't open to the overflow, but the overflow tank had a leak (used eBay) so I didn't let it run but a minute or two.
Tonight I re-welded the plastic over flow tank, so that should be good.
However, during this re-assembly process yesterday I found that the compression release spring on the exhaust cam had come off, so I naturally put it back on, and that was when we ran it.
But now today, I can barely kick it over.
Even though I kicked it for 15-20 minutes a few weeks ago, I dont have the leg to do this right now, so I am assuming that the spring fell off again, but I am not exactly sure how that decompression thing works at this moment.
Any advice would be much appreciated, as always.