Hey Chris, I'm clearing some backlog here and reading some old stuff...

I agree with RayJ on the shimming and his numbers. Number and thickness of shims does not automatically result a sure head clearance number especially from one Nova engine to another...

In Thailand early this year, my NovaMax was running with 2 x 0.1 mm copper shims with the supplied 25% Tornado fuel. I used the 7tf plug. That translated to about 0.5 mm head clearance upon measuring and I was getting about 120 degree C during race condition.