I don't believe lifter failure is a regular thing with these cars, although what you are describing sounds pretty mild. I have occasionally had a mild "tic" for a few minutes on start-up after letting the car sit for more than a week or so. I would probably only replace any lifters that seem suspicious since again, I don't think they fail that often. If your thought is correct that it has something to do with being at the end of the pressure line, then that would also support just replacing those.

Are you going to replace the front main seal? I did this when mine was apart, and it's an adventure! Mainly because the crank bolt has a ridiculous torque setting. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it's essentially "really damn tight, then go another turn!" I had to wait until the engine was bolted back in because there is no way I could have applied the necessary torque with the motor on a stand. I also fabricated a custom locking bar for the pulley because I did not trust using the lock pin. It really is a crazy amount of torque! Oh, and I also used the project as an excuse to buy a really beefy impact gun, since you'll want one of those to help get the old bolt out. I'm happy to share the details of my lock-bar setup, if you want.