360 build ????s

AJ/FormS said
You are getting ahead of yourself. At least, I, think you are.
Do not order that cam, or any cam, for that matter, until you get the heads off, and are able to calculate the Scr. That cam is too big for a low compression teener. Do not get caught up in cam hype. The single most important thing to consider on an existing combo is the ICA;the intake valve closing angle. If you get that too big, on your combo, your drive-ability will suffer. Not may suffer. Will suffer.
If you value off-the-line-punch, and cant afford a decent hi-stall TC, or 4.10 gears, just waitaminit.Get that Scr number, plug it into a good Dcr calculator. Play with it. It will spit out a number for you. That will be the ICA. Order your cam based mostly on that number and you will be playing to the strengths of the combo. Do do otherwise will lead you down a path of disappointment or endless money-spending.

Cutting the heads that much is going to change things a lot. He needs to figure out where he sits after that before worrying that it's going to be low compression. 11.5:1 with open chamber heads will be much worse than 8.5:1 if it's supposed to be a pump gas motor. It's much cheaper to buy a new cam if it doesn't work well than to have to deal with a heads/short block combo that doesn't match.

It's not all that uncommon for people to stay hung up so much on gaining compression that they forget there's such thing as too much. At least being after a real cam is going to help that some compared to trying to gain points of compression at a time and avoid even a stock 340 cam.