I just shut down for the night. The iron heads are off the shortblock, I finished checking for P/V clearance with a light spring, and I'm going to Hawaii Racing tomorrow to pick up a set of FelPro 1250 intake gaskets and Fel Pro bolt prep.
A few observations -
1) The Mac long tubes can stay bolted to the collector - no need to waste time removing them. For that matter, there's no need to remove the spark plugs either.
2) Trying to check P/V clearance with Play-Doh is really trite since it keeps sliding to the bottom of the combustion chamber. It might stay in place if the piston was clean or the engine were on a stand and the cylinder bank could be brought to a horizontal.
3) Snap-on sockets fit a lot better than Craftsman sockets.
4) Sears has every tool but is out of stock on the one you need.
5) Scraped knuckles stop bleeing eventually.
6) Polished concrete flooring gets really slippery when coated with antifreeze.
Okay, I'm off to the fridge for a cold one
. Will let you know progress tomorrow if interested.