oldman: Your pistons were likely clearanced properly...I'd imagine you would have felt the touch - ours was nearly locked from rotating!
I spoke too soon...it took several more remove/grind/installs to finally gain clearance. Pain for us...the bulky rods and 4 inch stroke complicates it.
Final cut, which I'm not proud of:
Torqued all the rod bolts to 30 and then 50 degrees which works out to ~85 ft/lbs thanks to my digital torque wrench.
Using the Katech C5R chain:
With a new timing gear and very expensive bolt:
Looks like we need to order a camshaft retainer plate...
Attempted to add the Johnson/Katech (slight oversize) lifters:
But the OEM LT1 lifter guides for the DOD won't support non-DOD lifters...will order the LS models:
On went the valley plate - recycled from the old engine:
Heads initially looked fine. Will clean, deck, grind the seats to appropriate angle for the titanium valves (likely a 45 degree angle) and reassemble. May be returned next week.