My 360 Magnum build thread

I called Kelly's today and spoke with Garrett regarding my measurements and next moves. He suggested swapping the piston/rods between cyl #1 and cyl #7 to get an idea of whether the deck is high in the rear or the rods are off - regardless it will be going in for square-decking.

So in reviewing the numbers with Garrett, I asked how little could he shave off the deck in the event that only .001 or .002 need to come off to reach zero deck height - obviously without having the block to jig up and check, hard to say, but admitedly he felt he may not be able to take less than .005 off.

Now this news leaves me with this dilemma, if he takes .005 off either deck surface it will set some of my pistons ABOVE the deck, which means I have to run a thicker gasket, not the end of the world I imagine - but I may still be looking at resizing rods, some or all. So I am in a bind, emotionally, and need advice beyond "scrap it and buy all new" cause I ain't going that route unless there is no other choice.

My choices at this point:
1. play musical pistons some more and see if I can even things out a bit, I doubt differences of .001 to .003 per piston height is going to affect quench too much...
2. send the block out to be square decked and see what it comes back at and then
a. have all the rods re-sized accordingly in their current locations
b. play musical rods in an attempt optimize deck height post decking
c. run a thicker gasket if they pop out

I guess the best bet is to get the block jigged up at Kelly's and see what the reality of it is...

Any advice is appreciated, and BTW Dakota, that is not a crack

FWIW - I am working with Kelly's because they are the ONLY shop on the west side that has the proper equipment to square deck a block, in fact, they are a motor machine shop only, and all other shops, dealers, etc use them. Seemed an easy choice to make for me...