Your message didn't indicate CE only machined no. 2 cy. head and not the others. Usually, all heads are cut evenly to maintain even clamp pressure when assembled.

Measuring and comparing the cylinders heads is a good way to know. Going even further, since the individual cylinders also contribute toward the stack height, try to include the height of each cylinder to confirm everything is the same.

Sherwood

Sherwood, yes, to clarify, CE cut all 6 cylinder heads. I could not find the marks I'd put on them with a Dremel when I shipped them out since it appears whatever method CE used to clean them erased the marks. I was a little concerned that maybe they had gotten mixed up with some other 3.2 heads but they all look great and I could barely make out the marks for 5 and 6. They'd numbered them so I'm pretty sure it's the same heads that went out. I'm going to give retorquing one more try and if that fails then it's "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!"

Buck,
To isolate the cause, you could temporarily swap #2 head into some other position (#1 or #3) with used head and cyl. base gaskets and no sealer on the cam housing, then try again. If no. 2 is now okay, it's probably the cylinder head.

One fix is to shim the short stack(s) or cut the thick cylinder head(s) accordingly (whatever the condition), but that introduces other mismatches (compression ratio, deck height, etc.). The recommended approach is to make sure everything is the same. That requires a trip back to CE to check and correct.

Sherwood

OK...a little confused now since I basically redid the torque going in reverse, i.e. outside in and the cam turns substantially easier. Still not quite as easy as the right one but a lot easir than previously. Here's my question...is there some way to guage the resistance to know if it's above some threshold...other than experience of several rebuilds? I will say that I can't turn it with just my fingertips...I have to wrap my index finger and thumb around it to get it started and then it moves with some resistance. Does that sound like too much drag?
Should it rotate as easily as if it's just in the cam tower and not bolted down? It's definitely got more resistance than that.
Thanks for the help...

When they cut the heads, can you see if they took a cut across the finned area too? If not this could cause the head fins to hit the cylinder fins and not seat correctly.

Craig, thanks for the suggestion. I just checked and I can see a very small gap between the finned section of the cylinder and the finned section of the heads so it appears the correct part of the head and cylinder are making contact without interferance. I wish I knew how much resistance was considered proper. It's definitely more that when the cam is just in the tower unbolted but not a huge amount harder to turn.