Check my work-Chime in please
OK...."This little motor is going to run like the 283 chebby you built when you was a kid with the Duntov cam and 10:1 pistons" Glad I could help......LOL
Clay? If you have done this combo before and know the cam lift and pistons won't hit, then it is just peace of mind. But I personally would not put together a new combo without checking. Last time I did this, I mocked up the compressed head gasket thickness with some old gasket bits, put some very, very light hardware store springs on the pair of valves on a cylinder (so light that they did not compress the pistons in the lifters), and the lifters and pushrods in place for that cylinder. I rotated the engine a few degrees at a time in the overlap region for that cylinder and pushed the valves by hand down each time to get an idea of the piston-to-valve clearance.
And piston-to-head clearance? Read the recent thread on the pistons kissing the heads....