318 hp question

When I bought my '69 Barracuda it had just had the engine overhauled even though it was a low mileage car, the guy was restoring the car. I wanted better flow and better exhaust so I bought some 302 castings, did some mild porting and had SS valves installed. The original '69 low mileage heads are now sitting on the shelf collecting dust. Both heads had 69 cc chambers so my stock compression didn't change (9.2 to 1 by the original 69 service manual). I did measure the piston height when I removed the heads and it was right around .029" below the deck. This makes a big difference....the 73 318 short block I have has pistons .100" below the deck. So pistons make a difference and heads do also. The 73 318 has never been fired, it has new pistons, rings, cam and bearings but I really bought it to build a stroker (390). I didn't notice a real big difference in power after I installed the 302 casting, but there was some difference. I would have thought that the 340 exhaust manifold and magnum passenger manifold coupled with the 302 casting would have made a big difference?? But now that I've installed the 2004R and fixing to put some 3.73 gears in the rear I should notice a really big difference.

treblig