I am building a 388 eagle rotator,dart iron eagle platnum 215 heads comp cams xtreme 520/540 lift solid flat tappet for my S-10. Everything is (was) going fine until I checked piston to head clearance.It was .038. I have been told I could run it this way but to make sure to not over rev it. Or could I just install a head gasket shim to lift it just a touch? The gaskets I have are the fel pro perma torque blues and a set of shims .012 thick steel shims. The blues are .040 none compressed. Thank you for any advise.  

If you're confident in the accuracy of this measurement I see no problem in it at all. Sure, it's a little tight but it won't cause engine failure. It won't hit below 7000 rpm I'm sure.  

I used molding clay to get this measurement.How accurate is this method?  

Yikes! I would not trust my engine to molding clay. The best way is to use a deck bridge with a dial indicator to measure the distance the piston is in the bore at top dead center. Then use the compressed thickness spec from the gasket manufacturer or measure it yourself with a micrometer.

Was this block decked? Did the machinist four-corner the block to determine the proper height or did they check the clearance with dial indicator or some other device?  

I rechecked evrything with a mic and the piston is out of the hole .006. The compressed thickness of the gasket i bought today is .050 will this work? Yeah the machine shop did deck it. Supossed to be zero deck. I called them again todat to make sure what they did. They told me that the pistons might need to be fly cut. They also clearanced my block for the stroker kit. You think they would have caught this. They also said that the piston might not be pefect either.  

For a change, the machine shop advice does sound pretty fair...

I think you should be perfectly fine.  

Uh, engine builders have been using clay to check piston-to-valve clearance for decades. While not super scientifically accurate, it works pretty good.

I'd suggest installing the shim anyway to give you a little extra fudge room. A few thousandths won't affect compression, and if you ever do have a slight over rev, it might save the motor.

I'd also suggest setting the rev limiter on your ignition to 6800 RPM to keep you from bouncing on 7,000.  

44 thou sounds pretty safe to me.  

Thanks for all the input I did install the shim. Just to be safe. Hopefully have the new engine and trans installed soon in my S-10. Hopefully the only problem will be with traction issues. But you cant have it all.