Ok guys...here is the combo and i'm wondering if I should have the piston to valve clearance (or however you want to put it) checked? Naturally I would regardless just to be sure, but i'm trying to save every penny since I only have a few. :D The builder wants $50 to check, and then the price of a new set of headgaskets.

Combo

333cu in
Edelbrock Performer RPM heads
Crane energizer cam 216 duration .454" life 110LSA
Forged dished TRW pistons with a .100" dome (I believe

I don't know the thickness of the head gasket being used, but it's a felpro if that matters. It's from the Felpro/Speed Pro/Sealed Power rebuild kit in the Jan/Feb summit. Page 113 (Catalog has a picture of a blown engine on the front...yellow plug wires) The kit is the one for 1962-69 327 w/ 10.35:1 comp....$459.95

I planned on spending less than $2000 on this rebuild and have already spent about $2500.....$500 of which I don't have yet....and need to find a way to make really fast. Any advice would be appreciated guys.

.454" lift whoops

That's very little lift, like less than some stock cams. A 151 even has .447", and it's about as lame as it gets.

Usually you don't get into problems in a small block until well over .600".

But if you really want to make sure, the easiest way to check, is to dummy up a cyl and the cam and a pair of lifters, and put some modeling clay or even Play-Doh on top of the piston, and crank the engine around a couple of revs, and cut the clay and measure the thickness. You need to use solid lifters, or adjust hydraulics very carefully to be bottomed. You don't even really need a head gasket; you can set the head on there with some sheet metal of an appropriate thickness to simulate one at the corners of the head.

OK....I won't have the means to do that though since the guy has all my parts. 216/216 .454/.454 lift at .050 is lame for a 327??? I realize it's not a whole lot, but it's a lot better than what was originally in my setup, and it was recommended by UDHarold....so it must be pretty good no?
My old one was only 204/214 & .420/.442 (at .050) and it worked pretty good.

no need to pull the heads..use a dial indicator on the valves(I-E) and remove the springs. Check 10º btdc to 10ºatdc

No, I didn't say that; I said a 151 is lame. tongue.gif

The method bigjim talks about works fine, it just isn't as precise; but is widely used as just a check rather than a measurement. It still requires dummying up a cylinder with the timing set and cam and 2 lifters and a head installed, so if you don't have your parts, it would be pretty tough to do.

Keep in mind, max valve lift occurs when the piston is somewhere near the halfway point in its travel, and when the piston is near the top, the valves are mostly or entirely closed; so the cam's max lift spec has little to do with piston-to-valve clearance except as a "rule of thumb". Cams with more duration will cause more problems even with low lift. But since you don't often see a cam with big duration and low lift any more, if you have a cam with stockish type of lift like that, you can be fairly certain that the duration will be low enough that the valves will be real close to the seat when the piston is anywhere near them.

Cam timing affects this too. If you retard a cam, the exhaust will still be held partly open as the piston approaches TDC; and if you advance it, the intake will have already begun to open more than it would otherwise. So that's yet another variable that has to be accounted for.

But, I think you'll be fine with what you've got, it's just not into the range where it's going to cause problems.

So you guys don't think it's worth spending the extra money to have checked right? If it was your engine would you guys have it checked? Just curious. Thanks again guys....I appreciate the replies. graemlins/thumbsup.gif smile.gif

Given that its not a super high lift cam and you say comp. is 10.3 I wouldn't think there would any chance of valve to piston problems! Goodluck with your engine build! :D

Originally posted by 71chevy0192:
So you guys don't think it's worth spending the extra money to have checked right? If it was your engine would you guys have it checked? Just curious. Thanks again guys....I appreciate the replies. graemlins/thumbsup.gif smile.gif With that cam it isn't going to come close to hitting unless something is terribly wrong like the cam is in 2 or three teeth off :D

Sounds good. I'll probably just have it checked anyway since i'm so paranoid with this engine, after what happened with my last one. Thanks again for all the replies.