Performance upgrades.

[1985CB450_imp]

I ran into similar issues with my 390 and my buddys 440, had to crank up the 'calculated' compression to compensate to the loss due to valve overlap on his motor setup, and the little bit i had in mine ( i have a mild cam but still lost some). On the FE, I went w aluminum heads and a better combustion chamber design & pistons and can run pump fuel with 10.5 all day long w 38 degrees max timing. try that with FE iron heads and its ping city. Point being, the heads are where the power is, every time, if the stock setup is fairly dismal. But it all has to match, which i -think- is what you are driving at.

Yes my point exactly

Some of the vintage Corvette guys I know that run iron heads to be period correct will overcam on purpose to bleed off some dynamic compression. As you know, closing the intake later will help to keep it from rattling at the trade off of losing some low end tq.

I get away with 10.5-1 on my vette by running alum heads like you and having good gearing (3:73) along with a manual transmission (TKO600) it’s a very light car as well (no a/c, manual steering, manual brakes) and I run a 15 lb flywheel so it spools up very quick

It goes against everything I know loading up an engine at low rpm and kinda why I chuckle when folks here start bragging about tq numbers at 2000 rpm…maybe on a H-D forum but on an inline 4 that’s what the gearbox is for