I am unsure if I can reuse my rocker arms but they are not cheap these days so I was hoping someone could chime in and tell me if these need to be replaced, need to go to a machine shop if I can find one that knows what they are doing, or if they looks good to go. They feel smooth and slide on and off no problem. This is my first rebuild on this project 96 12 valve. Any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Currently I don’t have either one, I was going to run VE as it seems like it’s cheaper. I don’t have injectors or injector lines anyway, so either one makes sense. I can get a timing cover for 100$, but I do like the automatic fuel advance on VE pump. I’m running non-IC reentrant pistons and it’s a low HP build. Aftermarket VE, fake Cummins VE, or aftermarket P?

So I’ve got my hands on actual micrometer and measured by Mahle .040 over pistons. They came out exactly at 4.050. I measured perpendicular to the wrist pin, about inch down from lowest ring grove. I set my bore gauge to 4.056 and checked the cylinder walls, they came out to within 0.0005, with out of round about 0.0002ish. This puts me at about .006 piston to wall diameter, which is half that at 0.003, is that acceptable? What is recommended? I did all this work so I can send these off to Line2Line with correct depth of coating. If mine is 0.003, at 75%, their coating should be .002 thick. I also got ARP 0.40 ring compressor, but with my pistons being 0.50, that clearly work work right. Any budget compressors you guys recommend? 1) what is recommended piston to wall clearance? 2) is 0.003 acceptable? 4.056 cylinder - 4.050 piston / 2 - .003 3) what ring compressor (budget) or will the APR work? The ARP does not slide down all the way in the piston. Lastly, bought the premium, it’s worth the money with questions I’ve already got answered!

Just noticed this on my head after starting to put I new seals. I can polish and make sure there are no burs, but seems pretty shitty to me. Does the valve compress further than the pinch marks?

Had to get a new Chinese head as my OEM 94 head was cracked in 1653 places. Surface finish - rough, the head was straight but surface finished could be felt with finger, pretty rough, but I think OEM comparable. Would probably be fine with OEM graphite gasket. I had it decked 4thou for finer finish as I’ll be running MLS gasket. Valve seals are top hat style with unknown material. All the valves sealed when pretty tested. I’ve ordered some mahle viton seals. Exhaust spring appears to be upgraded/different than OEM. Spring retainer also finer machining, but thinner than OEM. I’m assuming that exhaust springs are +60 but I have no was to test it. Intake spring appears to be the same. Should I upgrade my intake spring to the same cone style? Will be running 3K VE pump.