Quote: The portion where that circle is isn't/shouldn't have any contact with the camshaft.
The circle is created by the rotating of the lifter frm the outer edge of the circle to the edge of the lifter if it's not a .904 speced lobe ramp .
I'd be rotating the engine over on this RACE MODER and what the rotation of the new lifter in that bore vs. the others .
As far as the size of those cooling slits , think about how thick the gasket is and the fact that the holes in the block vs. the head don't line up unless you have a late block with the figure 8 looking holes, there isn't a lot of water flowing thru it unless it's a figure 8 block with a big rectangle hole gasket.
My WAG is that the big slit is an early gasket design , the Mr. Gasket steel shims are still like that as was what I think were the original steel shims in my 69 383 , the small slit is probably the evolution of the gasket when the block holes got elongated to keep the water flow thru them somewhat the same ???
