Maximum lift?

With my current block set up as it is & my J heads I will have a static compression ratio of about 9.6 to 1 with a .054" thick head gasket. Somebody here mentioned that a .054" head gasket is available, but I haven't tried to locate one yet. I think Cometic even has a .077" gasket. With the Edelbrock heads & the same gasket it would be about 10.7, or with a readily available .030" thick gasket it would be almost 11 to 1. I know aluminum heads will allow a higher CR, but 11 to 1 is pushing it for pump gas isn't it? I passed up a faily good deal on some Edelbrock heads because of the high CR.

I was also wondering if maybe I should just bolt on the heads as they are (no more machine work) because of the lower flow of the 340 manifolds. This is just going to be a street/play car, so the Edelbrocks seem like overkill, and so does pouring a lot of money into the stock heads. The car will likely never see a drag strip. I don't even know where the nearest track is.