[tubman]

We put aluminum foil balls on the pistons and valves held on by dabs of grease. I used the gaskets that were on the car with the stock heads. They were the original "Mercury" script gaskets, and I believe they heads have never been off the engine before. I had thought that the ideal "squish" was between .050 and .060. If your numbers are correct, it seems like I should be taking .010 off of the drivers side and .025 off of the passenger side. this would give me clearances of .055, .045, .045, and .045 on the drivers side and .043. 045, .055, and .047 on the passenger side. As you see, if I do that, the variance would be.012 (.043 to .055). Do you think this will be a problem? Since I don't have any machining capabilities, I would be reduced to modifying the chambers with a die grinder. It looks like the chambers have never been touched, and I don't feel like getting in there free hand.

Thanks for your comments.