Doing a top end/upgrade. couple questions, heads, rings and deckheight extremes. Options

[Aaron Cox]

motor ate a head gasket. pulled it apart before it could flame cut a cylinder or head.

so its apart. 71 x 94, with LARGE cam. has mahle euro '8:1 pistons" in it.
deck was setup at .031 but was running a head gasket.

heads have never been decked/surfaced. pulled em and cleaned em, 2 chambers have a sparkplug crack starting - so they need to be welded.

while its apart, i plan to re-ring it, hone the barrels, get the heads done, and???

questions - what rings do you recommend for mahle pistons?
certain rings justify certain hone finishes right?

heads need welding.
valves are sealing great to the seats. guides are good. (motor has 35 k on it since full rebuild.) when the head gets welded, will this require new seats/guides and a resurface?
what is the proper welding setup- my machinist may want to weld em cold, but i was told to pre heat em first - your thoughts?

when reassembling - how tight can i go on deckheight? the euro pistons have a .034" dish to em. should i trim the pistons .034 to make them flat, and trim the cylinders accordingly also?

trying to get as much CR with these 94mm pistons as i can, and running 91 gas.

last question- cam. how does the cam affect deck height? how tight can i go?

going to CC my heads tomorrow - before machining.... what is the range for a stock 2L head? 55-65cc's?

*on reassembly - head gasket will be omitted, and cylinders will be lapped into the head. valves will also be lapped into their seats again.

[Matt Romanowski]

As for clearance from valves to pistons, do what everyone *should* do (not just what people say they measured). Put some clay on the piston, assembly, turn over, disassemble, cut clay, measure. That is the only way you know what kind of clearance there is.

Also, I believe all the dished pistons are standard compression, with the Euros being flat topped and higher compression (at least all the one's I've seen). Fly cutting the entire top of the piston flat is probably a bad idea.....

[Aaron Cox]

As for clearance from valves to pistons, do what everyone *should* do (not just what people say they measured). Put some clay on the piston, assembly, turn over, disassemble, cut clay, measure. That is the only way you know what kind of clearance there is.

Also, I believe all the dished pistons are standard compression, with the Euros being flat topped and higher compression (at least all the one's I've seen). Fly cutting the entire top of the piston flat is probably a bad idea.....

clay- good idea. will do that on mockup/assembly. has some pretty beefy springs in it too. ill see what their spring rate is.

motor spun to 6200 rpm fine before we tore it down. valves didnt float... but i will verify their springrates again. (rest of valvetrain is manton cromo pushrods, 911 swivel feet and 1.7 rockers - soild spacers... johnston solid lifters.)

AA