I shortened the dizzy slots to have the total at 34* which seems to keep it happy at WOT. However since I connected the vacuum advance, it does this at 3/4 throttle on a hot day. I know I can disconnect the vacuum advance but it still seems like it is a bit of a compromise to lose the drivability of the extra timing. This motor seems to really like extra timing...

Would going from a .055" head gasket to a .090" make that much of a difference? I'm thinking like that would net me 10.4>>10.3 or something...not much drop.

I figured that since I am right on the edge it seems, I could go with a slightly warmer cam and not compromise with additives, race gas, retarded timing, etc. I wads also under the impression that with a 499 motor with this much compression, it would take considerably more cam and be still quite docile. No? Heck, 440Source pedals a .564" lift cam and says it's still real streetable?? Not that I would consider going quite that high as I need my vacuum goodies to work and don't want all the idle headaches with a lopey cam.