whats the static piston to head clearence for steel rods in an alloy block? my machinist decked my block & clearence with a stock Felpro might be a bit on the tight side now.

I would contact the block and rod makers and ask them
I seem to remember that .035 on steel rods with a aluminum KB dry sleeve street hemi block at room temperatures with aluminum heads was what I was told by Carillo and Ken Black back in the late 1990s, maybe not

Cab it's Xmas, i'm in my shed putting my engine back together before the new year holiday is over. I'm also on the other side of the globe & I seriously doubt if I rang, I'd get any sense out of anybody & with my accent added into the mix i'm sure i'll be put in the too hard basket. By my calculations i'm 0.010+ above the deck, i think i'm out of the Felpro zone & into Cometics, i'm just interested what the local opinion is on this one.

Most Felpro gaskets are .039" thick, if I remember correctly. That would put you at .029" piston to head clearance, a bit too tight for me. You might want to consider thicker alternatives for gaskets. I don't know if shaving the pistons down would be practical. I'm not sure if it would be enough to require a rebalance.

felpro makes a .051 thick gasket or mr.gasket does......alum block will grow .010-.015.

They get taller when warm I don't know the part number for the Fel Pro .052 thick marine head gaskets but I do remember Dominic using them and the combustion chamber I.D was for a large bore motor, like 4.540+

Cometic will make you a custom thickness if you like.

hey guys i already know Cometic will make any size gasket i like, i'm really just wanting to know how close of a clearence you can start off with with a alloy block. Summit sell Cometics in .045 & .051 off the shelf, i'm leaning toward .045 as that will give me .035+- static & then the block will grow from there.i'm really just looking for reassurance this is the path i should take. i'm down under & our race season has started, i had a small failure on our first meeting, i want to be back for the rest of the meetings this summer. i don't want to skim pistons or anything as its all freshly balanced, i just want the quick cure

.035 is good for a steel rod.

I found out the hard way to make sure and rock the pistons, all of them, at TDC and measure the hieght of the pistons at the cam side and motor mount side of the blocks and use.035 for the minimums out there

this is where i get my 0.010 from Cab. if it push the piston flat i get zero deck height.