If the head gasket was really messed up, it would have appeared on your compression test. Generally in the form of two cylinders with low vacuum next to one another. Your first post noted a steady 145 for each cylinder with little variation between the cylinders. You still have not verified whether you have the correct distributor cap. Until you do that you may be spinning your wheels a little bit. I think you really have to rule out a lack of spark before you do anything else. If you can confirm that each cylinder is getting spark when it should, then you can move on to the other things, confirming that the cylinder is getting fuel. If it is getting spark and fuel, I am with the others, may be a cam going south. Just out of curiosity, how did you measure valve lift? Try doing it from the lifter, that is pull the side covers, rotate the motor around and observe when the lifter is on the heal of the cam lobe. See if you can rig up your dial indicator to read directly off the edge of the lifter and rotate around to see what the highest reading is. See if that gives you a little more comfort level as to accuracy.
