Hey Tech,
It was built just for drag racing and I have no idea what the squish or deck height was set at. Will certainly find out when I tear it down. To make sure I understand what you call squish,,, I'm thinking the gap between the top of the piston and the chamber in the head. Is that correct??

I've run high octane with 108 boost mixed in (a lot of it, like two cups to 2 gallons) and only ran it a few minutes total in 1 minute intervals. I couldn't hear any detonation going on best I could tell. One other thing I noticed when I pulled the plugs was they had oil on them which may have contributed to the high compression. No doubt this thing is a beast with the 750 carb compared to the 670 I first tested it with.

When I did the compression test the carb was wide open front and back as it's mechanical secondary's not vacuum. Let it turn until it stabilized on pressure which was 5 or 6 chuffs. Of course I was shocked at the amount of compression on the first cylinder when I saw it. I thought,,, man no way,,, I've never seen that much compression on any motor,,, but' I've only assembled low end rebuilds.

I'm definitely up to changing out the pistons and feel it's the best thing to do at the moment. I have no desire to have a 500+ HP motor in my street rod.
I've read one of your other posts on squish and setting up deck height etc. Great info. When I tear it down those measurements will be taken and posted for input.

Will also get one of the books you mention by David.

If you could,,, give me a component list for what combination would get me the 400HP I'm wanting to end up with on this engine. Of course I'd like to keep as much of these original parts as I can (budget on less work hours LOL). The rod's, cam, heads etc.

Had already planned on changing the intake to a Endurashine Air Gap and running the 670 carb (or 750 with vacuum secondary's if I had to) for performance.

Of course if it all gets to be way too much then I can always keep the Vortec head motor with 3 Rochester carbs in the car. But that one wouldn't give me the fun factor I don't think. My concern with that setup is the motor would choke out if I hit the carbs wide open from dumping too much fuel. I've also had problems getting it to idle or run without the choke partly closed. It's starving for fuel and I'm almost convinced the idle mixture holes need to be opened up a tad more. Three deuces look cool but are a pain to get tuned just right IMHO.

Hey this is all fun stuff for me and I'm having a ball doing it,,,, can't keep a girl friend though ha ha ha. They all say it's not just a hobby but an obsession,,, they may be right

Later guy's,
HotRodN