01 Speed Triple fork oil

Hi all, doing a fork oil change on the Speed triple (2001). Couple of questions:

1 what weight oil does the forum recommend, the manual says 8wt but can only get 5 & 10 from my local bike shop;
2 I'm fairly heavy, 18 st in my gear. What air gap was recommended, I was thinking of taking 10mm off at 68mm;
3 when measuring the air gap I assume that the spring needs removing, the damper rod compressing all the way in (and being pumped a few times to fill the damper rod assembly) and the stantion compressing to the bottom of the travel. Is this correct? Manual a bit ambiguous.

Thanks in anticipation!!!