[Charlie ny]

Dave,
I've mention my method of matching chambers and domes & determining
valve clearance.......
I'll use alum foil balls to begin the process to determine how much to mill the heads. Part of that is to attach the head without the gasket to the block and turn
it over by hand a few times. If the average crush on the balls is .060 I'll have head
milled that much. Now comes the multi hour massage.....using prussian blue on the

piston domes and the heads of the valves, it's messy. The head is hung on the block with 4 studs and using arm pressure to hold the head down I spin the motor over
a few times. Removing the head and flipping it over I can plainly see areas of

contact and patiently blend those areas away using my trusty high speed air grinder. In most cases a head is off and on 20 times and the process per head is usually 10 to 12 hours. You must take your time.
I'm on my 6th motor using this process and interestingly while it's not CNC it surely
fits the head to the block perfectly. Something that comes to light is one bank will
be off to the front the other side will favor to the rear. With this proceedure the head
gasket is out of the equation until final assembly...this is where the .040 piston to head clearance is addressed....a crushed BEST head gasket is .040.
I will tell you when I wind either motor up to 5000 plus I think about that .040
and rod stretch but so far so good.
Charlie ny