reuby,

I have done this in much the same way as described with a couple of exceptions. I assembled the head to the block with no head gasket and set the rocker to valve "lash" at 0. I then turned the engine over and made sure that there was no contact between the valve and the piston. Once I was convinced that there was not and I had run the engine through a couple of cycles I removed the head and measured the clay on all four cylinders. (I know, overkill, but what if?) As long as I had between .008 and .012 I figured that all would be OK. (Head gasket compressed thickness and valve lash were not in the measurement here so that is why I figured that would give me a margin of error.