I thought the reason for shaving the top of the head was to maintain true allignment of the cam. If the top of the head is warped then cam tower allignment will off thus resulting in a cam that is binding.

And speaking of shims where could you even get those things anymore? Do shims come in different thicknesses? And couldn't you compensate shaving the head by a thicker gasket?

Originally posted by Ed

I thought the reason for shaving the top of the head was to maintain true allignment of the cam. If the top of the head is warped then cam tower allignment will off thus resulting in a cam that is binding.

Your right there, but you still need to return the towers to factory height.

And speaking of shims where could you even get those things anymore? Do shims come in different thicknesses? And couldn't you compensate shaving the head by a thicker gasket?

I had a head down a couple of years ago and they shimmed it OK. I guess a head job shop would be the best palce to start looking, but then again if your getting the head done, they'll shim it anyway.

I have a P-79 head on a 54 block the head was milled .030 and what I was told and also read here on the web was that .030" is the max. to run without shimming. My engine has 38K on it since the new cam and rebuild and I just pulled the valve cover to check the wear pattern on the cam. The towers are not shimmed by the way , and the wear pattern I found was pirfect , to my relief. I did this because I had read here about the rapid cam wear if alignment was off , between the cam and the valve stem length and rocker , and am relieved that all is good. So it appears .030" is ok. :stupid: just thought I would pass on the info.

I tried to down load the info. and the computer wont let me download the info . If someone would take the time I would be grateful.. P-79 head on a 54 block milled .030" Thanks :classic: