It sounds like he's already put all the piston in. From that you can usually tell what is going on by the distribution of clearance variations. Front to back, side to side, rods lengths and/or the throws. At this point I would simply look at the data he already has, see what its telling him, and then make a decision on next steps, if any.
Like Cab, I find its usually the rods.
Thanks for all the replies! Yes, the motor is already together and I was looking at the spec sheet and noticed that they were not all the same. The following is how it measured out:
1-.010
2-.013
3-.010
4-.010
5-.012
6-.014
7-.014
8-.014
I really appreciate all of the help and input from you guys. This is a motor that I got along with a car I bought and the short block was already assembled by the machine shop. Any more input so far as the head gasket thickness?
Looking at your numbers again it looks like the block has a slight taper on both sides from the rear to the front
I would do the checking myself on the way it is now to find out if it is tapered or not, if you get the same results I would remove the corner rods and pistons and use #1to check all four holes to see if it reads the same or not
If it is the same I would have the block straighten up, but that I me being anal on getting every thing perfect
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You won't see any differences in the way that motor will run with all the pistons at -.014 compared to them at -.010
On the head gasket to use I would find and use a gasket that is at least .025 thick compress or thicker
Maybe even a Fel Pro 1009
