I thought they were 040 thick. My bad. These engines don't rev like a chev which is where the 040 quench rule comes from with stock rods. 5800 rpm is all they are good for in my experience.

Nah pretty sure they are 030. Ill have to measure again. I think the graphite gaskets are 040ish. And ill be pushing mine past 6k lol

Enjoy passing v8 commodores. I do

I already do haha. Stock bottom end turns to 6k lol power peaked at 5100 last time on the dyno but was too lean/ ran out of fuel pump

All this talk about high compression is making me want to pull the head back off mine and reshape the chambers.
Don't know what mines at, but shaved 60thou off and had to stop when we hit the valve seats. Bolted down on an au mls gasket there isn't much room in there as the closed valves now hang below the face. Lucky the stock pistons have deep reliefs. Even with a very long duration cam and a 300,000km engine, compression test gives readings over 225psi.
If you do go a bit too far and end up having to pull timing, water/meth injection will put things right, with the added advantage of being able to run leaner WOT afr's, and steam cleaned internals.

Compression is like drugs. You know it affects life expectancy, you know it's costing you money(she needs premium dude), but when you feel that hit, that instant punch when you touch the throttle, oh yeah! that's the good s**t!

I guess thats why Ford made their engines the way they did. For reliability. I was always wondering WHY they would make the heads the exact size they do, when you get better performance by making them smaller (ever so slightly) and more compression.