No, the spacers tightened up when the side bolts were torqued. I started doing some reading on this to get an idea and found it was a practice to dimple the spacer boss on the block to take up clearance, mentioned in this article:
http://www.mustangandfords.com/techarticles/mdmp_1209_aluminun_head_427_fe_real_iron_part_1/, but I would use shim stock to take up clearance before I would dimple the block.
I will just go slightly wider spacers, I checked Precision oil Pumps site but no spacers were listed, I'll make some if I have too.
XR7 thanks for the picture of the blue print, and it looks like the spacers need to be in place when the caps are torqued but not the cross bolts, which I thought having the spacers in when torqueing should be done. And I did find the torque spec's & sequence for the cross bolts and this spec for the spacers: .000" - .001", but that was the only one.
The only thing I did wrong was I should of put a pre-load on the caps instead of just tightening the nuts finger tight, then I would of seen the spacers clearance from the beginning.
Bad Byrd, I don't think it's as critical with bolts, to a point, but if I had stayed with bolts , I still would of cleaned up the caps.
I want the block work done so I can have the crank finished, then I'll install it and a cam then shelf it, so then I can focus all my attention on the 390 short block, which is mostly cleaning and assembly.
And guys thanks for all the good tips & help.