Turns out the nice new valve springs that come with the ZZ performance cam kits do not seat on the 96 and 97 heads. Now have to wait for Dereks return so he can order different springs that work on the 97 engines. You would think ZZ performance would warn people of this because it turns out they already knew when I contacted them for assistance.
Well that's awfully considerate of ZZP, ain't it now?

Thanks for the warning!