360 rebuild, some questions/infos

Thanks for the all the advices...I will continue to think at all the things you said, and see what I will do.

moper said
Was this a good running engine? It doesnt look too bad. My own version of "cheapest" should run about $1500-$2000. If the bores are good, meaning no rust pits or bad scratches, and the engine was running before so you know it's not cracked. It's very easy to spend a lot to get everything perfect. It's sometimes better to leave "well enough" alone. I dont like installing new bearings on a used journal. Your horsepower is very reasonable, and can be reached safely with nothing more than factory machining and a cam change. So my build would be a crank kit (crank and mains and rod bearings), file-to-fit moly rings, cam bearings and block hardware, and the usual oil pump/pickup, good timing set, cam, lifters, nad I'd replace the rockers with MP thicker stampings, but I'd clean and reuse the pistons and rods as is. For machining, clean the block, deck it, and have it honed for the right finish with moly rings (that's much smoother than a typical ball or flex hone). Spend the money on having the heads completely redone. Guides, seats if needed, valves, the works. Add good springs, have the guides trimmed for teflon seals, and give it a good set of valves. Dont worry about adding compression any more than using MP thin head gaskets. Stick a Comp Cams XE268, and I'll bet you can go pretty well beyond the 350hp level, and more importantly, you'll have great torque and it will run on 87 octane. That's how I'd do it.

As far as I know the engine was running when it was top 5 or 6 years ago. Before we removed it from the car, we cranked it and pour gas in the crab ,and the thing was trying to fire up and run on is power ... but did not do it (my guess is either the carb or the lean burn or both)
I was wondering about the machining of the deck. What is the maximum that it can be machined? Can I have it zero deck with the piston so far in the hole? How much to remove from the head?

Thanks