not my valve stem's keeper

[Jac Mac]

Originally Posted by eschaider

Your are right Scott. That is why the piston is in backwards. The reliefs are on the exhaust side not the valley side. Look at where the block's locating dowel is for the head. It is in the lower left of the pic. That dowel and the reliefs should be both on the valley side of the block. The dowel is, the reliefs are not. This is a screw up plain and simple. Gary nailed it in post #22. Probability is this is not the only whoops in the build.

Ed

WRONG, the dowels are on the outer side of block and valve reliefs toward valley, thats the way they are on all windsor blocks ( plus every other Ford pushrod V8 I can think off ), the out of position valve to piston contact marks are due to the bends in the valve stem as per pics. Piston is correct. Whole problem is due to rocker contact with valve retainer.
If its hyd cam lifter preload may have been set too deep or the valvetrain components have not been correct at initial build to arrive at the train wreck we are looking at now.