Originally posted by erik erikson
A Zero deck height engine on the street is a waste of time and money.All the work and money for a little gain in comp. ratio.With this mild of cam Why?I.M.O. why not just take off enough to make it flat and then if you have any problems down the road you will still have some material left to make it flat again.
erik, it's not a matter of gaining compression, it's a matter of setting the squish at 0.035" to 0.040" in order to suppress detonation. You don't have to zero deck the block to get there either, just use a thinner head gasket. For instance, if the piston was down in the bore at TDC by 0.020" to 0.025", you could still get your 0.035" to 0.040" squish by using a Fel-Pro #1094 0.015" embossed steel shim gasket. You don't have to start with zero deck to get there.

Although I've never done it, others have told me they have been able to run on pump gas up to 11.0:1 with iron heads and a tight squish.