Your cam will specify the correct spring seat pressure and coil bind requirements. I normally buy the springs with the cam and lifters to avoid float or excessive lobe wear. It seems a waste to not use new springs on new heads though. I did that on one and ended up breaking a spring and had to tear it down one replace all the springs in the car...not fun. That was the price of that lesson, lol.
Also, did the machine shop hone the block to the Pistons? They need to be honed to fit each piston to the corresponding cylinder. If you know this and done it, disregard my post, just a thought.
Regarding the oil, you can not run a flat tappet cam with today's oil! It has to be synthetic, rotela, or you have to add an additive that contains zink and phosferous. The new oils do not contain those elements due to new engines are rollerized and don't require metal to metal friction inhibitors. You will wipe the lobes on your cam if you do not use the propper lubricant.
Your call, your engine. But every engine I have built and every engine builder I know does it the way I described. The thing is, in an assembly line, and I have never worked on one, they have control over all of the production standards on all the parts, not so with different manufactures. There are also different variables with different materials used to make the Pistons and rings and they have different requirements. I am surprised that the machine shop bored and honed the block without having the pistons on hand. They have to bore and hone each cylinder at a time, so it's not a big deal to make them fit as they go. It only takes 1 bad cylinder to waste a otherwise good engine. I will take the safe route personally. I hope it works out for you! No sweat about me being upset, I was just adding my experience to aid in case you didn't know, no biggie.Royal Purple was my plan, except for the 500 mile break in, where I was going to use the regular oil with the ZDDP additive.
@Dave, The reason I'm going with the rack and pinion steering is to help prevent bump steer. Every condition you listed is present no matter what kind of steering set up is used. I listen to all comments and may change my mind accordingly, but it's to late in this case. I already paid over $300 for the rack and pinion so I will be using it. If I find it has too many bad side effects I'll change it a little ways down he road. Thanks anyway.
@fletcherson, I realize the importance of a piston fitting the bore of the cylinder. It's all about tolerance. The tolerance of the bore is (I think) +.0025/ -.0003. I could look in the book but I think that's the bore tolerance. The piston is also made with a tolerance, that fits inside the bore tolerance. The piston will probably need to be deburred but, when everything is "in tolerance" it all fits together correctly. It would be a good comedy to watch a engine assembly line if they were test fitting each piston to each cylinder, lol. They wouldn't get many engines built. Please don't be upset with me, as I have heard this from other people as well, so it is a common belief. After 30 years of machining and making auto parts by the thousands, I learned that a part that is in tolerance (and looks good) will fit in its mating part, as long as that mating part is in tolerance. (The looks good part is simply for the buyers satisfaction.) I do agree with you on the oil for the camshaft, containing enough Zinc, or ZDDP.
