I have a fake 69 Super Bee. I bought it with a stock 318+904+8 3/4 with the intention to change it to reproduction Gen 2 hemi+A518+S60.

Are the Blasphemi hemi problems common for aftermarket block & head hemi's ?

In particular, why does the push rod almost touch the fire ring?

https://youtu.be/vjriSwbDaEQ?t=1638

Only if you put 20+ pounds of boost to the motor making 1200hp. The push rods were hitting the head gasket and they reluctantly had to enlarge them.

You will be fine running a street hemi.

plus pushing that car into the 8 sec zone

I ran into a similar head gasket problem on a KB street hemi aluminum block, with standard head gaskets, not custom made head gaskets for that block, water would leak between the gasket and heads and or block into the ring around the sleeves and then run down the exhaust pushrod hole
The cure was to use medical 00 stuture thread for sewing up people with Gasket Cinch as the adhesive to hold the stuture in place around every water hole on the block. I made a small circle around every water passage after being told about this trick by the head machinest at KB
This was for a all aluminum blown pump gas street Hemi motor that I had SCE gasket company make the custom made copper head gaskets that KB provide the design for
Hemiroid motors are known to me by that name for problems like that
Anytime I see screw in welsh plugs in the lifter valley I know it is after market block and to pay special attentions to details like head gasket application and other small issues related to them dang hemiroid motors while assembling them

I had a similar experience with my World aluminum block with water in the oil. What I found out was the Aluminum World block with the three water holes on the lower part of the deck are are closed off using the gasket in the picture.That gasket is for the iron block. I got this tip from Rich Nedbal . He gave me the correct part number for the Cometic gaskets made for this block with the three large oval holes open. The aluminum block does not have the smaller holes at the lower part of the deck like the iron block has ? Also the correct gasket fits the upper water passages better.
I sealed the passages with a thin smear of Hylomar on the gaskets.


Mark

I have one head that does this on a Hemi Products POS block, drops of water ooze out and run down in the valley. I like the idea of putting thread around the water passages. This reminds me, that all small opposed airplane engine cases are done this way with silk thread.

Hylomar and silk thread...

I learned about Hylomar from owning my Comanche, good stuff !

My son and I love Finnegan's channel and Roadkill both. Mike sure has had a heck of a time with "that" Hemi. This is at least the 2nd if not the 3rd Hemi he's had in it. Runs great, and his solution kept it running well enough to beat John Chase out of his beard.