When I replaced my head gasket four years ago, I just let the sprocket rest on the metal support and it was fine. Les' idea of using a zip-tie should work nicely, too. Also, I redecked my head at a machine shop. When I did so, they had to redeck it out of tolence, but I used one of those shims as well. It's held up nicely under a lot of engine punishment since them. As others have said, don't accept that head because of the crack, but (IMHO) don't let the shim be a show-stopper.

Ugh, send that head back. It looks like it was someone's training project...and they failed. The exhaust port sealing surface is also pretty banged up...that could give you trouble down the road. Why is the break-in lube just gobbed under the followers? I've always lightly coated/covered the whole cam lobes all the way around. It looks like they used the amount I would use on the whole camshaft, on just one follower. The crack is NFG (no fudging good). I'd tell them to refund and go with a clearwater head as well (as other's have suggested).
Clearwater 2.6L HYD Rockers <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

And so the saga continues. I got another cylinder head today. This one looks like a brand new casting. But there are a few problems. One is a bunch of swarf all over the top of the thing. #2 is the ordering of the cam caps. Here are the pictures

http://digitalpics00.no-ip.org/~halatos/CylinderHead2

Can anyone tell me how to determine if this is a clearwater head?

It is possible that someone drilled and tapped the wrong cap, or perhaps this head is for an engine with a different valve cover? Or maybe someone mis-numbered the caps and put them back wrong as a result. I really hesitant to take things apart and reassemble without plastigauging everything. The other option is to have a machine shop drill and tap #4, but then the whole thing needs to taken apart and cleaned again before I can install it.

Any opinions from the masses?

Chris