Ideally you are right.  The trend in modern engines is to more of a Diesel configuration.  In a Diesel there is no combustion chamber.  The cylinder head is flat.  The pistons have a combustion cup, which is much smaller than a dished gasoline engine piston because they are shooting for compression in the 20:1 range.

If you look at a modular V8 they all run dished pistons and have a very small chamber in the head.  Several Engine Masters Challenge competitors have built engines like this as well, all of which scored well and posted very good BSFC numbers (Brake Specific Fuel Consumption, a good measure of an engine's efficiency).  In a gas engine you are going to need a chamber in the head because I don't think there's enough room to physically fit a deep enough dish in the piston to go to a flat head with no chamber without making a lot of custom parts. 

So, were I building a max effort engine I would certainly go with the smallest chamber I could get (probably like 48-52cc's uncut).  Then deck the block to achieve the desired quench distance (probably right at 0.038").  Then have a piston made with a dish that would allow me to achieve my desired compression ratio (probably 11:1-11.5:1, maybe more depending on what fuel I was going to run).  I might even cut the heads to get a smaller chamber and allow a bigger dish in the piston.  That's about as much as I could reasonably do without welding up a set of heads, running longer valves, having pistons made with a different pin to crown height, having custom made rods, etc.

I think though, for devovino's application I'd just zero deck it, use a gasket with a compressed thickness in the 0.040-0.035" range, and set compression ratio with the chamber size in the head.  Offset grinding the crank is an interesting idea, but the crank already needs to be cut 0.010" on the rods, meaning that to offset grind it you'd need to either go to some kind of thick bearing, or reduce the big end diameter of the rods & run an oddball bearing, or weld up the crank to make it possible.  Typically in a stock engine that hasn't been decked the pistons are going to be 0.020"-0.040" down in the hole, so you're talking about moving the crank throw over that much, and then the grinding to get the journals clean on top of that.  Pretty expensive stuff at this level of play. 

To revive this old thread, getting this motor together after we ended up boring .030 over, getting some hyper pistons, opted for a mild comp cam with AFR heads and assembly will start next week. Asked what color I wanted the block painted and it stumped me... do I go traditional Ford Blue? Black? Silver? Seemingly simple question but muddied the waters for me and now cant decide, any input- Ford Blue is fairly traditional, but this car is after ending up non-traditional...

Raymond_B wrote:

In a black engine bay(if that's what yours is) I like black.

Very Nice!!! Yes the engine bay is black, and I was kinda leaning towards black truthfully, nice visual thanks!
 

I like old FoMoCo blue butt........my eyes are too so I'm a little parcel!!
6s6

Depends on what you're going for.  Most engines starting in the '80s went black.  If you're trying to keep the '60s vibe alive I'd go Ford Blue.  If its going to have EFI, etc. then I think I'd go black.  When I swap in my 347 it'll be Ford Blue.  Its going to have a carb and in keeping with how I've done the interior I'm going to strive for a seamless blending of old and new to where its plausible looking at it that the car came that way. 

Rudi wrote:

I did my engine bay satin black and the 331 block Ford Corporate blue.  :-(
 I wish I would have done the engine and  bay body colour. :-)
 Black and blue does not do justice to all of my custom billet accessories. 

That was my thinking, with a black on black "theme"  items like the intake, throttle body, and similar really stand out.
 

Since you asked............I would go serpentine drive(so reverse WP) To keep the engine bay really clean I would TRY to make custom mounts to keep the Power steering...AC...Alt...as low as possible  to draw more attention to the intake/carb OR FI unit sitting on top.
Its only pictures of dead presidents!
6s6

If you can find a good radiator shop they can modify your existing radiator (move the inlet/outlet) so long as your radiator is brass/copper.

And its pictures of dead presidents and Founding Fathers.  Lest we forget the guy on the hundie was never president; he was an old man by the time there was a president, but he had served as Ambassador to France and was America's preeminent inventor.  The guy on the ten was responsible for a large part of the Federalist Papers and Secretary of the Treasury under Washington.  Sorry, I'm a history nerd at heart...

 I know yall are all busy getting ready for the Infamous Bash so I might not see a bunch of feedback but Doubling back on this topic as my motor is just about complete with assembly of the rotating components. As I said before my 92 5.0 block bored .030 over, prepped/painted and rotating assembly began over the weekend with new sealed power pistons/rings rod bolts, new cam bearings. Also will be using a (mild) comp cam and going with AFR 165 heads, waiting on some roller rockers, guide plates, and ARP head bolts to arrive to finish this stage.

So my question being I am going to go with a serpentine belt config. and wanted to make sure I get the right timing chain cover, water pump for this thing, and also need to get a new front oil pump and pan, what would peoples recommendation be for getting these parts.

Was originally a power steering car so will go back to that, and would like to add A/C so will need some bracketry, I found this on LMR as for the brackets:  https://lmr.com/item/LRS-10313-K/mustang-engine-accessory-bracket-kit-hardware-7993 which should include most of the brackets needed correct?

Plus I need to think about intake manifold for a unknown carburetor? I have also thought about a throttle body injection system, anybody have any experience with that one?

Once again, thanks in advance, sorry for the barrage of questions.

i recently built a 92 roller. I'm using the 92 mustang serp set up. I got the front sump oil pan from summit.sealed power oil pump from rockauto. Don't forget you'll need a front sump pickup....order one listed for an early sbf. New oil pump drive shaft too.
Contact LMR regarding the timing chain cover. They can set you up with the correct one for your configuration.

Granted that system is TBI, but there's also 8 injectors, one per cylinder.  Its really more like port EFI with long runners.  Is the injector above or below the throttle butterfly? 

Yes, definitely a standard volume pump.  The high volume ones are horsepower wasters, and you end up sucking the pan dry to pump to top end full of oil.  Frankly I've never understood high volume pumps.  They seem to be a case of the bigger is better syndrome.  There are engines with oil system concerns like AMC, Pontiac, etc. which may benefit from work to the oil system, but SBFs have a good oiling system that works fine without a lot of messing around.  The weak link is the driveshaft, so spend a little to get an ARP, etc.  Otherwise run it as its built and you'll be fine.