FE lifter and cam dilemma
 

Im a little scared right now, Im not sure what I should do. I normally would buy an engine rebuild kit and do the whole thing, but its a service truck and has had work done already. The only thing is the person used the old stock length pushrods with new cam and lifters, and now I want to hunt him down. I found a few of the lifters to be abnormally worn in the seat (pushrod cup), so I decided to buy new lifters and break them in on the not so new cam. Please finish reading before you scold me.
So, I assembled everything, fired the truck up. Smooth and quiet, then got choppy and backfired and I shut it down. Thought for sure I'd flattened the cam or I put something in wrong. Tore it down and discovered 4 lifters were wrong, and one correct lifter was broken (valve on inside). Cam looks great, and all the lobes appear (by my closest measurements) to be fine. So now I have run this cam on 32 lifters, and now Im about to add 5 new lifters in seperate areas. Im getting really po'ed right now, because I think it would have been fine with one more shot, but now im throwing things off. I really believe that this thing is going to light up...not in a good way. If I have to get a new cam and lifters all over again, shouldn't the parts store have to replace that?
Im out of cash on this project. Its either run or buy a new engine, my $150 dollar fix (plus down time (home business work truck), fuel to return wrong parts, track down lost parts, and new gaskets for my re-tear down...is it hot in here?) has turned into quite a lot more already. If this engine blows im gonna push this truck right through their front windows...then regain sanity and tow it home.
Soooooo, what to do? What would you do on a very limited budget? And if this thing takes a crap and wrecks my block in the process...what then? Who's butt do I get to kick? My own?

....shoulda.shoulda,shoulda.At this point,a complete set of new lifters would be my first step.You might find 'em at www.silverstatefordparts.com at a good price..