your Top -to Bottom ring seal/leakage should be the same any piston position in the bore..you shouldn't let the taper get more than .001"..and the out-of-round should be ZERO even if theres some taper top to bottom
looks like Torque-Plates might not have been used
or used with bolts ...also its possible they did use the Plates but not knowing how to hone ?..there should be ZERO out of round with plates and main caps torqued, and theres a lot more to Honing like Hone rpm, stone load/pressure, grit, grit stages used, cross-hatch pattern, hot/cold honing, intake manifold bolted in place (with 2 torque plates), ring materials, cleaning bores after hone,ring gaps,piston groove quality, etc.
i have a Sunnen dial-bore gauge that reads in Ten-Thousandths....when Hone is finished w/Torque Plates, the Sunnen gauge reads "Zero" anywhere in the Bore...if you remove the Torque Plates and undo the main caps the Bores will not be round , especially on a SBC 400 OEM block that has half the bolt threads cut into the back of the cylinder walls.
becareful using Studs in a 400 OEM block
as they will distort the bores more during full-load acceleration, especially inbetween the 2 Intake port pair headbolt location...in that area a stud can cause the block to form a crack to the steam hole if its not previously cast-iron tappered plugged up ?
its better to use atleast 2 Bolts in those locations instead of studs...the Bolts have looser fit in headbolt holes due to their reduced diameter as it might pass thru a "sleeve" there in a highly modified intake port, or just interfere with headbolt hole in the casting if heads were angle-milled a lot but the hole was never corrected back to the old angle or even the spot-face at the nut location was not corrected back flat can all these things cause bore distortion
using a 12-point ARP bolt instead of studs would be better ring seal and less deck distortion than studs
studs need 10 to 15 more LBS. Torque to clamp the headgasket the same as a Bolt
the stud can act as a "Lever" thru distance with any tiny movement of top of stud distorting the block..as cylinder head is under full load acceleration with Combustion heat, pressure,intake, exhaust, compression strokes, coolant temperatures , differences between Aluminum Heads vs cast-iron block in expansion rate, spring pressures open/closed, etc.
you could also checkout these Posts on Rings
Larry Meaux (maxracesoftware@yahoo.com)
Meaux Racing Heads - MaxRace Software
ET_Analyst for DragRacers
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