Sorry to get here late. But perhaps things are not so bad. Consider the concoction you are using. You can submerge hard old manifolds in pure methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) for a year and hardly notice a difference. Or, you can submerge them in the pure carrier (xylene, benzene, acetone, etc), and get all sorts of ill effects in a short time (depending on what you use and the material of the manifolds). The MS has a hard time infiltrating the manifold by itself, but mix it with the xylene for example, and it gets soaked up like a sponge. Unfortunately along with the xylene. Let your manifolds sit around for a week and see if the xylene evaporates out leaving some of the MS. Maybe you will be ok. This trick is usually somewhat temporary (softening the manifolds) anyway, but lets you re-use the otherwise impossibly hard manifolds at least to get your bike back together. You very likely will find out your manifolds are once again uselessly hard next year, but if you do not take it apart too often, it will be ok. So keep an eye on them and put the carbs on as soon as they have shrunk back down enough - they will eventually get hard again. A lot depends on your mix. I think the best results are had with more soak time and more MS and less carrier to increase the MS absorption and minimize the inflation, but have not done enough experimenting to offer any better advice than a generality.
However, I can tell you that Loctite works great in oily environments, but not really at all on oily parts, Clean your cam sprocket and bolts (and anything else you would prefer to not disassemble itself while in service) with acetone before using the Loctite, or you may end up unfairly condemning a good product (and good advice!).
I don't know about the rocker interference problem might be off hand - been a while since I had one apart. If it obviously turns over smoothly with the cover on tight, it is likely ok though.
