Help! 360 with 302 heads no compression

You got your money's worth and more IMHO! And who knows, it could be a faulty block from the factory. Recently, a poster showed up with the back of the block machined in a manner that was not perpendicular to the crank axis, and one guess is that it had been that way since 'birth'.

Edit to add: And I ought to add that with the smaller chambered heads, the higher static CR ought to more than make up for any loss of low end torque due to the retard of cam timing. And retarding will keep it further a way from an possibility of detonation. So... now you can say the retarded cam timing is a 'design feature' LOL