Of course I forgot one thing. Once you have the CentOS kernel built, you should import that config as basis for your newer kernel version. Any wrong entries should be gone.
Care to give me the exact D/L URI of the CentOS .src.rpm kernel you picked?

heres the kernel source I started with in the first place http://www.stlhosting.com/kernel-2.6...UP_1.0.src.rpm i keep putting it off a new kernel comes out after posting this a newer one came out since then, why i want to learn how to build RPMs so much simplier to post up an RPM for others to install just cant quit figure out how to make one

heres the kernel source I started with in the first place
Hmm. That's not a CentOS kernel isn't it? Another idea could be to eyeball the .spec file from a Fedora Core kernel-2.6.17.n .src.rpm and see how they munge stuff.

That spec file from Fedora Core is huge ill see what I get out of that one.

I tried again on 2.6.18 now I get this

+ unset DISPLAY
+ make bzImage
.config:684:warning: trying to assign nonexistent symbol MD_RAID5
.config:686:warning: trying to assign nonexistent symbol MD_RAID6
.config:1343:warning: trying to assign nonexistent symbol STACK_BACKTRACE_COLS
make[2]: *** [silentoldconfig] Error 1
make[1]: *** [silentoldconfig] Error 2
make: *** [include/config/auto.conf] Error 2
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.67688 (%build)
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.67688 (%build)

however if I went in to build it manually using make bzImage it builds fine

however if I went in to build it manually using make bzImage it builds fine
Well, that certainly seems a step ahead...