flhry,

Motorman is a cool dude and helps anyone he can. not really fair to say he has issues.
i have the same opinion however, how did you justify needing to shim the head from stock?
was there detonation?........you can tell if there was by looking at the head and top of the piston and see pitting.

are you sure you don't have a head leak?

i have a G90 i got from someone who has had fits and overheating problems with the engine from day one..................it was a warped head that was causing it. new head and gasket and the 90 runs perfect now.

but the reasons you gave for shimming the head a whole .008" is a quite jump, and not jusitfied by your reasons.

overheating can be attributed to several things...........but head clearance is optimized in fine increments.

also since you have been overheating this engine, you may have totalled out the ring...........a mush and thush and stopping at TDC when flipping the prop means a head leak, or a fried ring.