318 poly question

I recently bought a 318 poly engine I found on ebay...Talked with the guy and he gave me a very honest description of the engine. He knew what he was talking about as far as machine work, ect. I just got it delivered on Friday and took it and all the parts out of the crate.....it looks very nice (it has a Weiand aluminum intake with it). I am going to check it all out by disassembling it and checking all the mains, rods ect. My question is this engine has flat top pistons and no reliefs for the valves like the stock pistons do.....will the work and not dive a valve through a piston???? How is the easiest way to tell??? Thanks.

When at TDC check piston height. Deck to piston top. Maybe they are in the hole and not all the way up to deck level.

If you still have the crankshaft and camshaft installed in the block, and at least one piston/rod in place, it's pretty straightforward to just use the old clay on top of the piston trick to determine what you have for valve to piston clearance. Just assemble enough valve train to activate the valves on that cylinder. Spread a thin layer of clay ( I use play dough) on top of the piston. Put the head on (use a head gasket similar to what you'd be using during final assembly.) I usually used the old head gasket just to get an idea what I had going on. Torque the head down. You can rough in the valve adjustment even though they're cold.

Turn the engine over by hand 2 complete revolutions. Pull the head back off and you can quickly see what you've got from the impressions in the clay.

I was working on a 426 wedge this summer and had bought a fresh set of heads for it from a craigslist ad. (fresh and ready to go, he said!) When I started looking closer at the heads I got concerned about valve clearance so did as above. Discovered I had about 18 thousandths valve to piston clearance, because I was running domed pistons. Turned out the new valves were sitting too high in the combustion chamber. Had to have the valves faced and seats redone to get adequate clearance.