Piston to head clearance

[truk]

I have removed the (edelbrock) heads on my 59 block and found after claying with the head gaskets on, that the clearance averages about 25 thousandths and in a few places it's about 15 thousandths. I have been driving this car for about a year previous to these repairs and have had no obvious problems. No pinging, no noise like anything was hitting etc. Also, there are no marks on the heads or pistons. Should I continue to run them like this. Opinions welcome.

Thanks,
Kurt

 

[Karl Wolf]

Things I've heard indicate that people shoot for about 0.040 clearance... But if it works, why change? Also, different head gaskets compress to different thickness... Karl

 

[blown49]

I believe the compressed thickness of the Best Brand head gaskets are 0.057 for the graphtite and 0.052" for the copper. You could measure your old gaskets and compare to these numbers.

jim

Jim