yeah, that's exactly it. I think it was wiped when I started playing with the adjustment the first go round.

My plan is to just pull the pan, front cover, the cam & lifters and loosed the rocker shaft to pull the pushrods, I dont want to pull the crank, pistons, bearings, head, etc... dont really see a need for it, anyone see any problems with this approach? The machinist said it was best to get it out now as it hasn't done any damage yet, I took the oil filter to him after cutting it open & no shiny copper or bearing material in the oil or filter.

Anyone done it this way?

Crap! I don't remember what I did! It was so long ago.
I think I pulled the engine and pulled the oil pan and wiped up as much as I could inside the block. Then I rotated it and pulled the cam and lifters out.

This all happened to my current A12. According to my records, this was about 140,000 miles ago. :)