1), It's better to take more off the block to start with and adjust with the head after you assemble the block and determine the actual finished deck height...(the head being easier to take back to the machinist and scrape more off later if you need more compression).
2) It depends on the era of block, but if it's a cast crank block or late forged crank block after about a 0.100 total scrape you need to mock it up and see...

Welp, I got my head back from the cartoon character a while back. He wasn't the least bit happy, but too bad. I made sure he didn't do a drop of work to it (other than tear everything down and not label which hole it goes to )

Diagnosis: Valve seats appear to be alright (I figured they were, it had solid compression before I tore it down), intake valve guides make a definite and strong *POP* when removed, exhaust a slightly weaker and less defined *pop*, but I suppose it will work just fine for the application.

Also, Dan's recommended damper that I ordered from RockAuto came in today. It's only a 1 groove, where mine's a 2. I'll have to check but I may be able to make that work. It's got 2 odd grooves (90*?) instead of the 1/3 grooves, again, fixable. But then I seen this... Dan? Where'd I go wrong?


Also, (and I should've taken a picture) I noticed while playing with my dial indicator, that when the piston was at TDC, the harmonic balancer was reading ~10* advanced on the tab. Would this mean that my timing was actually 10* more retarded than I planned?

Also, I ordered some Sealed Power valve springs, rated somewheres around 178lbs I believe. A tad stiffer than stock, figured it'd be good insurance if I ever felt brave and wound it past 5k. But, they're about 1/10th of an inch taller. This shouldn't cause a problem, correct?


Also, I went to compare my Melling pushrods to stock ones, hoping that they were a hair shorter, giving me a little more leeway when I go to shaving more off the deck. Well they're a hair longer. Sorry, no pictures or measurements on this one. I got a bit distracted when I pulled the first rod out of the bag and seen this


Yep, bent pushrod. Lucky for me (yeah, right) it's the only one of the 12. I'm unsure of when it happened though. My first though was it happened when that explosion. But, I got to thinking some more, and that don't make sense because the valves would have already been closed, right? Unless the cam tried to open the valves against the explosion... I dunno. But, I do know there was this little nick on the rod at the bend, it's hard to see in the picture, you may have to look at the screen just right or somethin.


So, that leaves me with a few options:
1) Try to order just one, still cut only .050 off (for a total of .100) and hope for 9:1
2) Just go ahead and buy some custom length ones. Get it done and over with and don't worry about it again. (By the way, how much do these typically cost?)
3) These pushrods seem to be press fit. Does that mean they can be pressed apart, shortened a set amount, and pressed back together? Just an observation/thought

Also, I've decided I'll just hog the head myself. Nothing to extravagant, just simple and safe, and a little more in depth than before. Again, sorry, no pictures. Pretty much, the first time around I didn't do much more than round the corners on the valve guide lumps and knock the edges off around the bowl. Now, I'm going back through and pretty much doing the same thing, but to a greater extent. I've thinned the guides a good bit more, and have went back and done more work to actually smooth the transition from the valve seat to the bowl (using play-doh to make sure I don't accidentally chew up the seats) Also, a gasket match on the intake ports, with a good bit of opening on the exhaust. I didn't take the exhaust to the gasket , hoping to have a little bit of a lip going into the Dutras, maybe promote scavenging? Who knows if it'll work, I may take some pics tomorrow if I remember...

Which brings me to some questions:
1) What do you use to rough back up an intake port once you are done porting? I'm concerned about fuel dropping out of suspension and running even richer.
2) Since my valve seats are good, I reckon I'll use the stock size valves. However, Mr. Master Tech didn't label which valves came outta which cylinder. Shouldn't they go together, like lifters and cam or rods on the crank?
3) How much of a benefit would there be in backcutting the valves and thinning the stems?
4) A friend told me that you don't want the combustion chamber polished, that fuel can drop out and stick to it there as well. Is there more fiction to this than fact? It seems to go against what I've read before.

I have access to a nice set of scales at the shop, used to mix paint. I think I'll tackle the task of static balancing... How many of you do this? What methods do y'all use? I'm kinda leery of it, I know I can screw something up real easy here if I ain't careful, so I'll take it reeeaaaal slow. I plan on factoring in the wrist pin and rings as well.

Which brings yet more questions!
1) Can/would you try rod polishing, such as mentioned here http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0 with cast rods?
2) If the above were done, but not shotpeened, would anything be gained/lost? Would it make the whole thing a waste of time?

Thanks for enduring the long posts and multitude of questions!! If nothing else, I can say I'm learning...