8 degrees is fine. That being said, I tend to agree with the other poster. For the motors sake and your piece of mind it should be looked at thouroughly before you accept it as is from the previous outfit. Steps that pertain to integrity and quality seem to have been ignored or overlooked. For 8800 that thing should have been perfect in all aspects... from cleaning and mag'ing right on through all other phases. That experience planted a lot of negative mojo. Who knows what is going on with the bearing cap, journal on the one main... much less the other ones. That would haunt you every time you turned the key. You want to drive this car.. flog it from time to time. that is what it is for. You don't want to go through the remainder of the cars life wondering if the motor is going to take a powder on you again.