Mekanik

Well it turns out the shift forks were reversed.  Apparently every time the trans was out the throwout bearing was broken too.  This I think was a clue that would have been worth taking a closer look at. 

I removed the exhaust valve springs with the intention of swapping #2 valves with #4 valves to see if it's the guides or the valves and I can't even remove the #2 exhaust valves.  I had to tap them with a hammer just to get them to move.  I don't see any point in removing them from the head at this point because this is definately my smoking gun. 
 
 
That's interesting.  I did just replace the rocker and clip.  It would probably have been easier to replace the entire rocker, but I was afraid to didsurb the headgasket by removing a head bolt.
 
 
I saw this in a 7.3L where someone managed to replace lifters without removing the heads and then as a bonus left behind parts of the old push rod and lifter.

I wanted to wait until I was done with the truck to update this. It looks like a lifter came apart in this engine and some hack tried to replace lifters without removing the cylinder heads. The headgaskets were all mangled, but the real problem was the retainers that hold the lifters in place (into the lifter bore in the block) and keep them from turning. One of them was broken in two pieces and both of those lifters were out of their bores, bent push rods, valve hitting piston, etc.  I found extra lifter pieces in the oil pan and pick up, and also another half of a lifter retainer. That’s what damaged the oil pump and front cover.
 
What a freaking mess!