[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by Pampered-Z

You only want a mild build so find a good block and stay with the stock deck hight. Unless you have some real need to reduce the deck I wouldn't bother doing any more then the bare minimun. You start talking about changing the deck height and you are getting into allot more time and money. If you end up having to do something like commetic gaskets you'll need to remachine the block and heads to get the right surface finish.

For the CR, you also want to check static but understand the cam choice will bleed off some compression. Now your looking at a 503 cam, that not going to give you much of an issue with your P~T~V clearance. If you do go big on the cam, just remember you run a manual trans so you run the risk of a mis shift and overrevving. So you do want to stay on the higher side of your P~T~V. I rev high and mis shifts LOL! I wanted allot of clearance!

If you do a stock or near stock deck, mild cut on the heads and a .39 gasket you will be fine. I've used the 306 and GM847 cams with stock heads, thinner .029 head gaskets. PTP was fine with 1.5 rockers, I felt the 1.6 make it a bot close for what I like to have. These ran fine on pump gas with no problems.

Ok, I'll leave the deck alone if it checks out ok. Instead can I run a 0.026" gasket without trouble?

Worth investing $200 in my connecting rods (machine work + ARP bolts) or buy a set of forged SCAT rods with ARP bolts for $250? I know, I'm at that line again