I don't have them yet but they are sapposed to be here any day. And they are his old heads ( Jim Valakeo - Pro 1's ) These are the heads that he had on his 540's that dynoed at 699 HP last year.

I'm not sure exactly where you're measuring from but the Merlin is 8.75 tall standing on the bench, and 6.5 from top of intake flange to carb flange. I'm going to mount the exaust manifolds before putting the engines in the boat. The Black Thunder has a huge engine compartment.

Standing on the bench will include part of the manifold base that sits down in the lifter valley. Measuring like this the Dart is 6" from where the intake sits on the front rail of the block to the carb flange.

Looking at it that way, the merlin is 8.75. In addition I'm using a 4 hole 1" spacer under the carb. Teague recommended this setup in one of his Powerboat columns and it does work. It idles at 800 in neutral and drops to 650 in gear without stalling or surging. The carb is a 1050 Holley model #8082-1.