I gave up on the .015 stainless gasket. Just don't think they make one for a marine build.

I also gave up on the quench quest. From what I've found, it just can't be done on a small budget. The only pistons within my budget have a 10-13 CC dish volume and 1.54-1.55 compression height. With that dish volume, If I cut the block down to where it needs to be for a workable quench it raises the compression too high and I won't be able to run 87 octane. The only piston I've found under $250 with a large enough CC reverse dome to lower the compression also has a very short, 1.425 compression height. So, I decided to just tweak the piston selection (11 CC dish volume & 1.54 compression height) and gasket height (.039) a little bit to give me a 9.0:1 compression.

I did decide to go with the LT4 Hot Cam. My builder is giving me a $150 cam credit if I supply the cam so $211 for the LT4 plus $119 for the comp cams 982 spring kit less the credit works out to $180 to go from the stock cam to the LT4. Seems like a good investment.

I'll stick with the stock exhaust for now and upgrade that later if necessary. At this point I just want to git er done and get back out on the water.

Thanks for all the advice!

I'm in the beginning stages of building a very simiular engine to yours its going in a 20' baja i'm stuck on which pistons i want to put in it also and whether or not to stroke it to a 380.

if you are buying pistons and doing crank work, you can't justify NOT going 383...10% more displacement is 10% more power...