[Jon Miller]

I'm getting ready to bolt the heads on my motor and I've run into a situation that I thought I would avoid. I've got a cam with .536 valve lift, and with the piston at TDC, and no head gasket, I've got about .300 before the valve hits the piston. The pistons have valve reliefs cut into them, so I had hoped that my motor would be "non-interfearance". I've lost a couple of timing chains over the years on different cars and luckily the motors were not zero clearance, so no damage was done.

My next step is to check clearance with rotation (Valve Lift vs Piston position) and see what I've got. What I don't know is how much to allow for the head gasket, and how much clearance is enough.

Here are the vitals:
428 SCJ
TRW 2303 pistons
Edelbrock Heads
Hydralic Cam
INT. Lift .510
EXT. Lift .536
FEL-PRO gaskets

Thanks in advance!
-Jon