Vavle stem height....

Ok, I need some help.

A few years ago I took my J heads to the machine shop with the 360short block for some machining for a rebuild. My problem is with the heads...

I had new seals, valve guides, hardened seats and a valve job done on them. I bolted teh engine together with performance springs (appropriate for the cam) and stock valve train. It ram like a beast in my 89 Ramcharger for about 3 years (maybe 10k miles). Well, I've decided to sell the Ramcharger, so I pulled the engine to put into my Duster. (I rebuilt another 360 to put back into the RC).

Now, I have the engine sitting in the garage and my plans are to just refresh the engine with a more radical cam and an adjustable roller rocker setup. In addition, I'm going to mildly port the heads and gasket match.

Now - with all that said, here's my question. I took the time to look the heads over and noticed that the valve stem height is off on several of the valves. I laid a straight edge across the valve tips to determine this. It seems maybe that after installing the hardened seats that some of the valves are seated a little higher than the others.

- Shouldn't a reputible machine shop have accounted for or noticed this?
- Do you think I should take the heads back after 3 years and show them and complain?
- What can I or should I do about it? I will have adjustable rockers on it when i reassemble the motor. They are only slightly off, but almost recognizable to the naked eye without a straight edge across the tips. Honestly, I didn't want to invest more $ into this engine for this project. It is for a street car that might see the strip once in it's life, but I want to try to get into the 12's.

Sorry for the long-winded post, and thanks in advance for the help!