High Compression 390

Nice, I think I'll call him for my cam too, that's reassuring he says it will work. I wouldn't be surprised if the quench was off the mark in my past build, I used .039" head gaskets but didn't go through the full process of making sure each piston came up to zero deck. I only measured #1 and it was still .003-.005" below, the rest may have been more or less as my machinist said the block had already been decked but not square-decked. Also I later checked the accuracy of my Harbor Freight compression tester with my air compressor and it was definitely reading low by maybe 20 psi at 150 on the compressor gauge so I think the actual compression was higher. @nm9stheham the Voodoo cam I had not only has 'fast' ramps but is ground 4 degrees advanced from the factory and is advertised as being intended for smaller-displacement engines with stock/lower compression. I first bought the cam for the stock 318 the car came with, I was dumb and wanted to save a couple hundred bucks so I reused it (with lifters of course) in the 360. Sure had a sh**load of torque on the bottom end at least and it lasted maybe 20k miles even with all the pinging.
I did not realize your quench was that good.... .043 or so is decent.

OK, yeah, if that gauge was that far off, then at 170-180 psi, you were reeeealy up there in DCR with that short of a cam duration. But I bet the low end torque was sumpthin' !

One other thought: Your Voodoo cam profile had the potential for better cylinder filling than the slooow ramp cam that I used. So that may be another factor; better cylinder filling, or 'area under the curve', should push up effective DCR, like being at a lower altitude.