Guys,
I got the intake mocked up today. Since I'm having .024" taken off the heads and I'm using .020" steel shim head gaskets, I just bolted the heads to the motor without a gasket. That put me within .004" from where it will sit eventually anyway. I bolted the intake on using the same intake gaskets I'll eventually use but old used ones. The intake rails were higher on all four cormers, front right = .031", rear right = .050, rear left = .021, front left = .050. I had the distributor installed when checking.
Since I know I'm in the ball park and all the bolts fit, I'll go ahead and have the head work done. Then, I'll decide if I want to mill the intake rails on final fit.
I talked to my machinest ( he's at a show in Indy now, he makes custom Rods for people all over the world that go in engines I've never heard of ) and he said he was planning on milling the heads, doing the pocket porting and installing the valves but the runners were just getting cleaned up at the first inch, exhaust and intake. The runner part I don't understand. My exhaust ports dump out into larger chambers on the headers and the intake runners dump into much larger intake ports on the heads. What would working on the runners accomplish. I could run two sets of Streetmaster intakes into the intake ports of the C1AE-A heads I've got. How the hell Jay got that much horsepower out of those little bitty intake runners on a Streetmaster is suspicious. LOL PS I forgot to put that the gap at the bottom front and back was .148", the cork gasket is .170". I think it'll be good.