Engine sync too far apart
I neglected to mention they were not fine before tear down. When the engines where new on up to about 30 or 40 hours run time. I'm just guessing thats about the time one started not peaking out the same as the other. I DID notice that the cylinder head on one had a couple of head bolts that were not as tight as the others. Your head experiment makes since to me. I'll give it a try.
Edwin