What kind of disaster would cause you to have to cut the block down again and not bust the rest of it. IMO if you have a motor failure that needs to cut the deck down to fix, you have major problems. There is nothing wrong I can see with choosing thin gaskets and shims if that's the way you choose to quench. I like to zero it because it trues the block and I like Fel-Pro's hi-performance gasket #1010. I have had no problems with this set up. It's just a personal preference. It is more important than line boring the mains to me unless you change fasteners.

GM has let a lot of tolerances go unchecked, that doesn't mean it was a good move on there part. A 5.565 rod in a 400 came straight out there plants. We know that a 6" rod is much better. They are into production of numbers so therefore have production tolerances. Look how much core shift comes out of all stock blocks.

Proper quench has little to do with just getting the numbers squared for equal HP on all cylinders.

PROPER QUENCH IS WHAT KEEPS A STREET ENGINE OUT OF DETONATION. WITHOUT PROPER QUENCH, A 10.1 CR WOULD NOT MAKE IT ON PUMP GAS.

I am in the process of building another blower motor now that I couldn't get a inverted dome type piston for. I had to use a dreaded soup bowl. At 9.0:1, I would not set this motor up for
6 lbs. boost without water injection. I run 9.0:1 with 6 lbs boost with no problem on my engine with INVERTED DOMES AND A 0.039 QUENCH ON PUMP GAS. I don't think it would be possible without the quench set right.