I think you are ok with just being able to barely turn the crank over by the balancer with bare hands. If you were having trouble turning it with a socket wrench that would be another story. If you left the distributor in, you are still fighting the friction of it, the oil pump, the camshaft, the front and rear main seals, and the rings. You don't want it to be too easy. Both my 261 and 302 I can just barely turn over by hand with the spark plugs out, and they have normal compression and oil usage. I would just install the head and run it. If you want to pull the pan and replace all the seals that's fine, but if you put the new head on and you have good compression and don't burn oil then you just saved yourself 3 grand.
Last edited by 4ontheFloor; 11/29/2008 7:38 AM.
