That's the whole issue that I have Vall, I sent these heads at Christmas time to ensure he had more than enough time to work his magic and have a beautiful set of heads that perform better than most folks would ever think Procomps could. What I got was a 3 day blitz that literally came down to the minute before I picked them up. At 6:30 am on Monday morning, he still wasn't finished with them as I was driving from the hotel to his house. 118 days to work on them and it came down to the second. I won't know anything until I drive down the road so it's hard to really say if the job is good or bad. I just can't stand the fact that it came to this and they look the way they do for what I paid. My problem isn't with the roughness on the intake side, it's everything else. 5 cc on the chambers wouldn't be a problem if the CR wasn't so close to where I need it at 64cc. 2-3 cc would be fine, 4-5 turns into more of an issue. I'm tearing them back apart and sanding the exhaust runners and the bowls. I'll put some more pics up of the bowls (ugliest part) when they're apart so you can see what I mean. I'm not going to complain anymore as it won't do any good anyway. I'll feel a lot better once I get the sanding done and clean up some of the casting to make them appear as if they were new at some point. To answer your question Vall, it is white lithium on the guides. I think he's got a white lithium fetish or something because he goes through it by the barrel load (watch some of his videos.) He used grease on the valve stems when installing them and then used 10w40 around the guides. Appreciate all the opinions guys, thanks much.

 

Dont forget the sonic checker. He greases the snot out of it too. You can run a thinner head gasket and get your compression back up. Just watch the piston to valve clearance.

 

Tim, I picked up some thin GM brand head gaskets in a batch of parts from CL a while back. I think I have 3 or 4 sets. I'll check on them but I think they're 0.021". If you can use them you can have a set!

 

Thanks for lookin' out for me Neil! I had bought a set of .041" head gaskets as I was worried about the dome on the pistons hitting the edge of the chamber back when I was trying to use a set of vortec heads. Piston to valve clearance is ok on these heads but the edge of the dome was still nicking part of the chamber above the spark plug hole. That should be all taken care of now with the work I just had done on them. That would be super sir, I'll even trade you these .041" if the thinner ones will work! You coming up to ski this weekend? I'm joking of course, however, we are supposed to get pounded on Friday with a beautiful springtime blizzard!

 

Yeah you guys are getting Thunder Snow. I posted about that a few years ago. It was crazy. Thunderstorm blizzard? We got 4" of water yesterday. Anyone wanna go tubein'? The river is only 10 feet over flood. But were used to that, every spring the snow melts and the river turns in to white water hell.

I would look into the gaskets an then use clay to determine if anything touches. You guys do know when people down here go "skiing" they are getting ready to do coke? So who's turn is it? LOL But really Tim your deck surface must be pretty low fit the pistons were gonna lift the heads. Dome pistons and 64cc would be up around 12:1 I would think. Add that to the short stroke of the 327 and your dynamic compression with .041" gasket might not be bad. Dont put alot of faith in the cam description saying "needs 10:1" its not like they wont work at all below that. KB's website has a dynamic compression calculator. Check it out, you enter the valve timing from the cam card so it can determine how much pressure is bled off when the piston is coming up and the valve is still open. Plus a short stroke will have a lower number.

Think of it this way. My 383 has a 3.75" stroke. I have to pack that into a 64cc head. I need a -18cc piston to keep my compression down. Now with the 327 its what 3.00" I really dont know, never had one. So I have to pack .750"x4.030" of air more than you into the same 64cc. A 350 would be about 10:1 with a flat top and 64cc. Thats why I wonder why your shooting for a small chamber and domed pistons? Inquiring minds what to know.

 

Get some blue machinist dye and set the heads on the block without a gasket, and not bolted down either. Put dye on the tops of each piston and crank the engine through it's cycle by hand. If nothing marks the piston top, then even the thinnest gasket will be great.
I've used clay before, and it works great, but kind of a mess to clean up, and time consuming to do each cylinder. If the dye test doesn't show anything, then the clay isn't neccessary.

 

I don't think we'll have the thunder snow this time, that was back in February. Just another foot of wet sloppy stuff. Didn't know about the winter sport terminology, interesting though lol! I don't know about the deck surface Damon, it wasn't that the pistons were just lifting the heads. It was because of the heart shaped chamber on the vortec's that was causing the very edge of the .125" dome to catch the edge of the chamber. Piston to valve clearance was ok. No issues when the 993 heads were on there. I was having the same problem with the new heads but only on 2 of the chambers because there was just too much meat where the spark plug hole is. There was so much extra aluminum above the spark plugs, the electrode was almost 3 threads up into the head. That's all been pulled back now so I should be fine. My pistons don't have a real big dome and have valve reliefs (-5.30cc) cut in also. I've used the clay already and that's how I verified the clearance was ok, except for the edge by the spark plug. 10.35:1 comp with 64cc is what is on the sheet for the pistons. I was just figuring if that's the case, I should be closer to 9:1 instead of 10:1 with almost 70cc chambers now. I want to keep it around the 10:1 area with this cam. 327 stroke is 3.25" and I really don't have worries about clearance, just compression. I'll check out KB's page and take a look out of curiosity but going off the info sheet on the pistons, I'll be low now. If a smaller gasket will help, I'm goin' for it! I'll certainly be checking everything again when I get ready to assemble (just waitin' on the weather) and I don't have any machinist dye so I'll probably just stick with what I have already (clay.) Thanks for the tip though Vall.

 

Your deck height is gonna determine alot. If you have a depth mic you can see how far in the hole they are. That will help you properly calculate the CR. If the block has never been decked I would guess your fine.

 

I honestly don't know if it's been decked before or not and it kills me to not know that. I don't have the mic and/or don't know how to properly check it anyway, which sucks. The guy I bought this engine from never said if it was done before. He had just finished rebuilding it (used to be his Dad's so always in the family) and I'm sure he would have told me if it was done at that time. Dad was there also and never mentioned it either. I hate having to make assumptions and again, don't really have the ability to check. Wish I knew what to do to check.

 

An easy way to know if the block has been decked or not is to look for the code stampings on the pad in front of the passenger side head. If the block has not been decked, the stampings will still be there loud and clear.