What fuel are you going to run? That's a little high for 91 without pulling a lot of timing.

i'll pull timing for the street, i hear conflicting reports all the time saying 11:1 is fine for 91 and some say 10.5:1 is too much for 91. Cases of torco are relatively inexpensive and if i do end up needing more i have friends at downs ;)

I think it depends a lot on the design of the head, piston, etc. The design of the 302 is not as good as say an LS where you can run higher compression. I think you're going to end up having to run either a slash of 100 or 110 or some Torco.

If I'm running race fuel I'll run straight 110 and enjoy the benefits, but I should be able to get away with a bottle of torco per tank will fix

One thing about Mufstains is that the aftermarket support is miles ahead of my Eclipse. When I get rid of the GTO, I'm thinking of getting one like yours.

I'll be here to help, restorations and suspension for mustangs are my bread and butter. Plus I have all the specialty suspension tools as well, bumpsteer gauge etc

I'm not much of a Ford fan, but I'll turn to the "dark side" for an easily modified car.

Parts for foxes are cheap

My heads (milled 4.8 truck heads) were advertised at like 11.1:1. On hot days in the summer, it'll knock. Of course the CA summer blend *might* have something to do with it. I've since gone to a 160 Tstat, which should help too, but I've traditionally run roughly a cup of Torco per 15 gal tank, and that gave the slight margin I needed. I worked out the calcs once and it was something like 92-3 octane when I was done. HOWEVER, I did and still do have some fairly gnarly back pressure, which raises combustion temps even further, so some good headers and that problem might be gone altogether on 91.

I'll know more exactly what it is when I get back and the engine is finished