wrench87 I have shelby heads but had the same problem with alignment and clearance. Little grinding and a rubber mallet fixed that. My heads have special studs and nuts from a shelby block and the end stands needed to be modified for clearance of the head nuts. The stock valve covers are real tight. I have the cobrajet stock covers and they could rub in the back corners if a hadn't glued 2 thick cork gaskets together for clearance. I ended up going with the tall Leman valve cover and have no clearance issues. Lovehammer is right about needing 12 point nuts to get the nuts to not hit rockers. I gound down the washers for clearance to the mounts. Washer looks like this []. Works fine. I used ARP studs for my mounting hardware. If you are going to limit the
oil going to the heads, nothing smaller than .080" oriface for good oiling. If you are going with a hydro camshaft and run hydro lifters that pump
oil through them, get a set of Smith hollow pushrods. The oiling will help keep cool the contact point between the pushrod ball and the cup of the adjuster on the rocker. Run a HV pump and add 1 quart of
oil past full. Make sure you get the correct length and ball and cup size for the setup. I think it's a 5/16" ball for the lifter and 3/8" cup for the adjuster. Check on this!!!
Good luck Rick L. Ps make sure your oil return are clear of any gasket materials. The Felpro 1246 will cut off some of the return galleys.