How much decking is to much?

Rusty, IIRC the blueprint deck height is 9.560 and I've seen them as tall as 9.625. You also need to make sure the pin height in the piston is at blueprint spec and rod length is at spec. If any one of the three (or all three) are off you have to correct it with deck height.

Absolutely, but for this discussion, we hadn't gotten there yet. lol And don't forget indexing the crank!