OK, but either way - bent or not - if you are thinking you don't have a valve sealing correctly, a compression test will isolate which cylinder(s) have a problem.
The photo you posted in answer to Mike's question confuses me. Those are Ford hydraulic lifters in the photo. If your lifters have a moveable center plunger as those do, and a hole into the center clearance area of the lifter body, they are hydraulic lifters. If there is no moveable center plunger then they are solid lifters. Make sense? Which do you have in your engine?
