Price is right , I'd put cheap paint and make a beach cruiser . I hate those 11 to 1 300's wish was a low compression 2 bbl .
The '65 "355" actually was rated at 10.25:1, although some of the literature of the time (not the factory shop manual) says otherwise. Buick lowered it when they switched to iron heads. I imagine that the rated compression was optimistic either way, and that was measured with a steel shim head gasket. With a new composite head gasket, the actual ratio will be even lower. With that being said, keeping a 355 from pinging is difficult in my experience. Mine has 2.78 gears and an ST300, and I have to keep the advance curve very slow or it pings like crazy on the 1-2 upshift. I use 93 octane in mine, and to be fair, the engine is mostly original with the exception of a pair of head gaskets and a new timing chain, so it may have minor oil control issues.
