What is the best (and easiest) way to determine how much my 440 block has been decked? Short block originally built by Speed-O-Motiveusing JE pistons with a comp. dist of 1.858. I have a 4.15 stroker crank in it. If I remember correctly, it was set at "zero deck". The reason I ask is that I now want to swap the current 906's for Eddy's and I've always had intake fitment problems with the current setup. If I can figure how much it was decked, I should be able to figure how much to mill from the intake side of the heads. This thing very very seldom goes to the strip.

IMO, instead of trying to measure and then still estimate what what needs to be cut from the head intake, just cut them .060" and buy a set of the 0.015" and 0.030" thick intake gaskets and dial your fit in with the gaskets.

Install the new heads and mark a straight line across the top and bottom of the ports that you can see on the heads on both ends with the intake manifold on, same thing on the intake manifold so you can see where the intake manifold ports align with the ones on the heads Hopefully your manifold ports are smaller than the head ports, if not time to do some head porting I lay the intake manifold on the heads with no gaskets with the heads and intake marked and go from there, if the manifold top and bottom of the ports are higher than the heads it (manifold) needs cutting, if they are lower add gaskests to raise and align them Watch the bolt holes also, you may need to elongate ot open the bolt holes in extreme conditions. I like to use a feeler gayge under all four corners and at the top and bottom of each corner with no gaskets or valley pan, I write the clearance numbers down on the intake, say the top rear driver side is .022, the rear bottom driver side is .007, the driver side front top is .000 and the front bottom is .025, and so on on the other side That intake needs cutting to square it up so it will fit that motor better, I ask the machine shop to cut the top between .001 and .003 more than the bottom so the botton will pinch the intake valley pan and intake gaskets (I try to use all four of the thin paper gaskets with the Fel Pro Hi Po valley pan kits ) good over the lifter valley IHTH

Outstanding Cab. I love it when someone gives me an answer that not only makes complete sense, but is so simple that a caveman can do it. Thanks.