if he's going to run NA, he can build quite a nasty little engine and use the stock EFI system.

Go to the race section and check out Adobedude's set-up. He's racing a Dakota into the low 12s, and might have even dipped into the 11s by now. And his race track typically has 10k foot Density Altitudes!

There's a lot of 408 stroker motors with serious cam specs that are tuned with SCT utilizing the stock fuel injection system. --SCT over-writes portions of the factory PCM to adjust fuel delivery tables, spark timing, etc. and can program the computer to run in open loop all the time, or retain closed loop for part throttle cruise.

but when you start talking about boost, you start to run into the limit with the factory stuff. some guys have done mild builds on boost, swapped to a 2-bar map sensor, and had good luck, but if you really crank up the boost, you'll need to look at megasquirt or the like.


Now, as to the original question, how much can you shave the heads? I dunno. Mine are cut .030, and I'm using a Felpro 1008 head gasket which is about .015" thinner than the factory gasket. This bumped my compression from the factory 9.0:1 to about 9.5:1 while still retaining the stock dished pistons.