Your CR should not be in the 12s unless you had the deck cut significantly. If the block wasn’t decked a ton you should be around 11.7:1

That said, its still way too much for pump gas. Especially with no quench.

Fel-Pro 1039 will knock you down to 11.2, still too much. A fel pro 1039 + an 88 CC head would knock you down to 9.8. In my opinion you need to get the CR down below 10:1 to get thar short block comfortable on pump gas. 9.5 would be better.

You can keep what you have an go with a .098 from cometic for 145 for each gasket and get down to 10:1. You can also order a .120 from them (9.4:1) and a .140 (9:1) for 225 a gasket. I don’t have experience running gaskets that thick, but its available.

Your best fix is to run a flat top piston of course but I realize that is probably your last resort. $450 for head gaskets is getting into piston money territory though. Also, your deck and heads are supposed to have a fairly smooth finish to run an MLS gasket like a Cometic.