340 build

Yes, I agree that flycutting the pistons will give a bunch more valve clearance. The thing that still would concern me is the piston to head clearance being too tight with the closed chambers without running a really thick head gasket. An over rev situation could be catastrophic without that space. Also too much space creates that much more length for pushrods , brackets, etc. That is why I suggested the proper heads, and all those issues are eliminated

He is not really fly cutting the valve reliefs in, or even deeper. The valve relief hits a wall and then has to go straight up to meet the top of the piston. sorry don't know how to explain it any better. I don't know why they do that on that piston, but it's been that way for some 20 + years. If you need the valve clearance, that piston was not designed properly for that purpose. Personally i think they did it to gain some compression, but i'm only guessing.