[Nmbr1GMfan]

Originally Posted by Greg Reimer 7376

Never fails. Change one thing and it affects another thing. Usually, after heads are decked to arrive at the blueprint specs on the chamber volume and the block is decked to get the correct deck height, enough stuff has moved around enough to throw off bolt holes,gasket sealing surfaces, push rod lengths, valve train geometry, and all else, even after the intake is narrowed down so that it snuggles down between the heads like its supposed to, then the distributor bottoms out inside the engine before the distributor is correctly seated down on the manifold, so a certain configuration of spacers is necessary.If its not one thing,it's something else. Never fails. A really quick stocker motor is such that the whole package has to be reengineered in order to get everything to work. In my earliest days of doing this, I wondered why racers I knew had all these different blocks,heads,manifolds, valve train parts, and all else in excess of what one main motor and a spare would require. Now, here I am with a couple of cars, a spare motor and God only knows how many manifolds and heads and internal parts it takes to make this stuff all work. You have successfully shown us just what all that process requires in order to arrive at the desired end result. Ever seen people enlarge the intake manifold bolt holes in order to get the bolts in after all the machine work on the long block? If you had to do that, it means that it still doesn't fit right. Some people go back to the drawing board so much they wear out the drawing board before the motor ever gets test fired.

Greg, I have learned that one change at the bottom of the stack throws the whole deal so far off kilter it's an engineering nightmare for sure.