You are going to need a massive cam to bleed of CR, this will not help low end power and the engine is probably not going to be very street friendly... the least "visible" modification is going to be pistons....
Any details on the engine like cam specs and chamber cc's ??
No idea about the octane ratings but Sunoco sells some 104 octane race gas that should work for you - think it's like $8 a gallon :twitch:
Does the engine run as it is now or is it already disassembled? What size head gasket do you have ?? There are a few thick gaskets out there that might get you to where you can use 93 oct gas.....
Thanks for the input. I will round up spec's and post. I do know that the L79 327/350 HP came with the L79 GM speced cam, 202 CI heads, I think (I will varify) they were 64cc chambers, 11:1 pistons and this set up ran on pump gas. Now is todays fuel the same as yesterdays. That is the question.
That 11:01 is just and estimated compression in a perfect world, If you actually measure the deck height to see how the piston is down in the bore and actullay pour the combustion chamber and figure out the dome volume of the piston I bet you will see that you are under 11:01 compression
If you can keep your dynamic compression below 8.5 you should be fine on 93 octane.
Some times putting seats in those old heads can be a problem as we ran into this last week as we hit water with a .200 thick seat which made the head junk!!!
No matter what you buy for heads they may advertise a 64 CC chamber but it has to be checked to be sure we see the AFR's that are suppose to be 65CC which when poured they are closed to 67CC's
An aluminum head would be the way to go.
We are building a 350 original Corvette engine and the customer wants Dart 180 Pro1's and is going to a hyd roller cam as he down not wnat any issues!
I think we will zero deck the block and save the vin numbers and use a set of the mahle flat top pistons and he wants to go with 6 inch rods as well.
Should be a good little build when done.
Another thought you could set that engine aside and build a 383 or 400 CID engine. This has been done many times!!
Good luck which ever way you go.