318 Dis-assemble & Assembled 1st time

That is exactly what my problem was in the first place. Fitting the intake was such a huge chore that I thought I had the wrong intake to begin with.

I went so far as buying a Crosswind Professional Intake thinking that the factory intake from the original LA style just didn't fit well with the new Magnum heads.

I could lie the intake between the heads and there would be about a .020 gap between each intake surface on the manifold and the heads. SO my solution was to double up on the intake gaskets. What was I thinking.....?

Anyways, I am reconsidering the piston choice and looking at the KB's 167 with a Compression height of 1.81.

The block is completely disassembled and next stop is the machinist to bore it 0.030. I'll partially assemble it to get what I need to achieve zero deck. I was going to mill the necessary surface of the deck to achieve zero deck with the PN285 pistons I have now. But that might be too much metal when the compression height is 1.74 and they sit 0.085 in the hole....