ok...so now I have some real numbers to work with. The measurements were taken many times over until I had a fairly confident process with repeatability.

Quench clearance w/no head gasket = 0.045"
- Heads were torqued to approx. 35 lbs
- Used rosin core 60/40 solder over length of step
- Crushed 3 times at TDC
- Both ends & middle of solder measured & averaged
- All cylinder were within 0.005" of each other
- Very little piston rock was noticed across the solder

Piston step head to deck = 0.039"
- Piston brought to TDC with dial indicator
- Measurements made with straight edge & feeler gauge @center of piston

Flat of piston (valve reliefs) to deck = -0.034" below deck
- Piston brought to TDC with dial indicator
- Measurement made with straight edge & feeler gauge @center of piston

Head CC's
- All were 82-83 CC's
- One was at 80 CC
- Double checked all measurements
- Allowed water to sit in chamber for 15 minutes w/ no valve leaks observed.

Head bolt bosses at the exhaust side were also checked as suggested, and were at 0.975" indicating heads were most likely milled.

Looking at the numbers, with a 0.020" head gasket the quench area will end up at 0.065", which is far from ideal.

Also looks like compression is somewhere at 10.5:1.

Any thoughts?