head gasket issue

[fomocoloco]

i recently had my 428 C7MEA block bored and square decked. i installed the rods and pistons yesterday. crankshaft is 1U and the rods are C7AE and the pistons are trw 2245. the pistons are proud close to .010. what kind of issues am i going to have in regards to pistons to valve clearance. will that issue be heightened by using a pair of CJ heads that have been planed .020 or so? Are cometic head gaskets going to be required or some other work around? would i be better off using a pair of edelbrock or BBM heads?  thanks.

jim oberg

[RustyCrankshaft]

What specs are the cam?

[fomocoloco]

haven't bought one yet. i will probably buy some vanilla flavored comp cam such as 5.16 or 5.33 lift or so or maybe a 282 solid lifter cam. no hot rod. very mild.   thanks.

jim oberg

[Barry_R]

A set of thicker Cometic or regular passenger car Fel-Pro head gaskets (not performance ones) and you are all set.  That mild a cam will not have any issues.

[My427stang]

On street motors I like them proud, lets me use the engine kit 8554.  In fact, the 461 I just dyno'd was .005 proud and my own 461 is .010.  Works great with street builds

[fomocoloco]

i was just concerned with piston valve contact after removing that much material from the block and then using heads that had been planed. whose engine kit was the one that use mentioned. at what point in cam lift does the piston/valve issue come into play? i would like to use the CJ heads but they have only a half of thumbprint left.  thanks a bunch.

jim oberg

[Joe-JDC]

Just as long as you have a minimum of .050" compressed head gasket thickness, minus the +.010" giving you a final clearance of .040", you are good to go.  Start with a gasket that has at least .050" listed as the compressed thickness.  Joe-JDC