Hi Shayne
Been working through the same problems of the running changes on 235 and 261. I have just finished setting up a 235 on the engine test stand and will be trying to start it today. Also have a 261 which I just finished assembling after complete rebuild. Chris is right about the Stovebolt forums, if you have not found all the good related sites, let me know and I try to paste my entire list of Chevy Stovebolt to a post.
One very useful site that I have found, it has been mentioned lately, is
http://chevy.tocmp.com/ they have posted many manuals for different years, I've down loaded them all and it is useful because they point out many of the year to year changes.
Concerning your problem with the push rods, part of the fun with that particular part is that Chevy change how it measured the lenght at one point from overal lenght to tip to inside of the top pocket.