Valve clearance and camshafts.

[Stock]

I have a 3.4 iron block that i put z34 pistons in. also the crank i am useing is a 2003 crank as i was told these were balanced much better.

I did a test on the clearance i had with piston top dead center and i got .3510 clearance from valve all the way up to valve touching piston.

My plan was to put a 272 cam in this engine alough it's lift is speced at .482 at exhaust will this cause collision of my pistons and valves?

is there a better way to test for this other then the way i did. also has anyone done this before and maybe could tell me from experince.

As you can tell i am not what you would call a veteran of engine rebuilds.

[v6h.o.]

the proper way to test piston to valve clearance is to put a small thin amount of playdoh on the top of the piston.
install the Camshaft you are using, the head/valves, the rocker arm ratio, and a head gasket the same thickness as you will be using (a used one will suffice)

assemble the head with a set of rockers/pushrods in place. slowly by hand crank the engine over (so that if you feel a resistance you can stop)

once you do a full revolution, remove the head and now take a look at the piston/playdoh surface. is there contact between the valve into the playdoh?

if so, take a knife and slice the playdoh in half from the middle of the piston/valve contact area, so that you can now take a depth indicator to measure how thick the playdoh is at the worst contact area.

most engine builders suggest keeping .060 inch clearance or more between piston and valve (if i remember corretly)

however i believe you should be fine for clearance with the 272 camshaft and the setup your going to be running. it is a higher lift. but others have run even larger lift camshafts with no troubles. but i would just check to ensure you have clearance.