General rule of thumb is 0.004" for every 1" of cylinder bore diameter for na engines. I have found on the last few builds that the rings I bought (Hastings) put you in this range right out of the box but check them.
A friend of mine straightened a badly bent push rod from his 440 by hammering it on his cement driveway. :disgust: He wasn't listening to me and cranked the engine with the starter while we were adjusting the valves. I can't believe it has run for this long with that crap push rod and I can't...