After being so fed up last week, I was determined to find the cause of the 350’s stiffness. I backed off all the rockers to see if it helped, but there was no noticable difference. I had no chice but to pull the inlet manifold, followed by the head on the passenger side. All of the bolts I took out were filthy on the threads, which was odd. Under the head was a FelPro gasket, and some decidedly new looking .030 oversize forged pistons. That makes my 350 a 355 then. The bores were full of crap which turned out to be lumps of silicon gasket. The engine was covered in it when I got it, and the inlet manifold had been sealed with lots of it. I blew it all out, turned it over, then put the head back on. It took me half an hour or so to clean all the bolt threads with the wire brush, and I used a torque wrench for the first time (yes, really!) and torqued it all down. I then read up on how to initially set the rockers, and did them all in sequence. I put the covers back on, then spun it over and re-torqued the rod and cap I took off to check. I’ll polish the manifold then re-seal it and it’s ready to go. One less worry.