Clylinder head clearance

3

37 truck

Senior Member
I thought I should check clearance of my cylinder heads to valves and pistons. I remember Ol Ron suggested using aluminum foil balls stuck on with grease. I have Edelbrock 1126 heads, and checked clearance without a head gasket that I figure will add about .07" to my clearance. The valves all measure between .05" and .07" clearance without the head gasket. The pistons at the dome consistently measure .03" again with out the head gasket. This should translate into piston to head clearance of .10" approximately. and over valves of .12" to .14". This seems adequate to me, and thought the foil balls worked well. Any thoughts?
 
You've certainly got clearance...What head gaskets are you using to have .07"? generally, compressed gasket thickness is around .045". I generally aim for around .040-.050 over the pistons when assembled, so if you take .025-.030 off your heads, you'll be about spot on. Of course, what you've got at the moment will run, but for optimum squish, aim for the above figures.
 
I checked the old head gaskets that came off my engine, and they measure between .04" to .05". I don't know if they rebound some when torque is released. That gives me about .07" over pistons currently.
 
My 68 engine was rebuilt, long ago (at lest 50 yrs), it's .040 over and has Victor head gaskets on it. I was recently gifted a pair of NOS Victors from a form member.

The old gaskets after being pulled off, measure .060 and the new ones .079-.080.
 
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