440 power gains/ aluminum head advantages?

In the time I have been messing with these things(since 1981), I have come across 4 timing sets that had the “dot” on the wrong tooth.
The only way you find that is by degreeing the cam.

The first time it happened was on a timing set that came out of a 446 that was underperforming.
It was my first experience with a roller cam(mid-80’s)……and I was not set up for cam degreeing, and had never done it before.
I lined up the dots and put it together.

The car owner over revved the engine and it broke a rod.
By the time it came to putting the replacement together, I had gotten the needed pieces to degree the cam(and had done one previously).
Well, I kept coming up with it being 14 degrees retarded.
I checked and rechecked, and it kept coming up the same.
I grabbed a different timing set, and it came out right on the money.
I couldn’t believe it, figuring I had something wrong in my original set up, and swapped back to the first timing set.
Still 14 degrees retarded with that one.

So I took to two top gears, put one on top of the other, and sure enough……..the dots were not lined up with each other.
The light came on as to why that previous combo was an underperformer(the cam was 14 degrees retarded).

You’d think that would be a once in a lifetime thing…….but I have had mis-marked timing sets in my hands 3 more times since then.

It’s the knowledge that those things exist why I feel that degreeing the cam is a “must”.

More than likely it’s not the OP’s problem……..but without checking, you don’t “know”.