Re: stick shift piston to head clearance?
 

Are you talking deck height or piston to valve clearance? With a 4 speed, you need at least .080" intake and .100+ piston to valve on the exhausts. As far as deck height on that big of a motor, .045 total would be a real close call. Stuff stretches disproportionally at RPM, more so on a big inch long stroke motor. In fact, stuff you can get away with on a 283 won't work on a 350 without collision of parts. On small block stocker engines, we've run .028 total deck(block height and head gasket thickness combined), with .040 intake and .050 exhaust P to V with an automatic trans. I know, that's enough to make anybody nervous, it should.That's sometimes what it takes.