The one single thing that bugs me now is one small scar on the block by the alignment pin. I'll own up--While sustaining an attack by my eight and six year old in play, I accidentally did this while removing the mushroomed alignment pins/dowels. I hope that a bit of copper ultra-temp sealant under the gasket will be forgiving. Attached is a picture for you to look at, and I circled the two areas of concern. Now, I know that you can't judge depth from a picture, but running your hand over it you can barely feel the scratch (I'm not sure how else to measure it).

If I was close to broken apart, I would go to the machine shop, but the crank is in with the pistons & we are torqued down and covered with the pan. What does your experience say--am I okay, or is there something that I can/should do to make this a little better? I plan to run a .015" gasket to get a 9.5:1 CR. I can come off of that if you guys think a thicker gasket would be better given this.

Thank you for your advice!

 

Both scratches are far enough from the coolant passages that I'd feel safe with any gasket. However, to use those 0.015" gaskets, the pistons must be at least 0.020" below the deck at top dead center.

 

Relieved--thanks, all. Now I can install the camshaft and move forward.

I should have my heads back from the machine shop next week (I had them milled to 60cc, and wanted the intake port-matched). I'll be ready with some of the kids' PlayDoh...well, to do them all at the same time I might go & buy some...and check them all out at the same time.

 

Forget Play-Doh, it's kinda springy / spongy. Pros use modelling clay for this reason.
Plus the kid's stuff gets contaminated by sweat and whatever else gets on their hands.
So wash and dry your hands before handling your new clay. And keep it away from the kids. It's a tool, not a toy.

 

I was assuming you meant for checking piston-to-valve. For deck height, you can use a dial indicator, or lacking that, a steel straightedge and some feeler gauges.
Best to check all 4 corners of the block. Go with the minimum measurement you find, not the maximum. The same goes for p-t-v measurements.