Probably just the straight restoration crew.

Well, it just so happens that I received my "Modern Engine Blueprinting Techniques" book in the mail this afternoon. While looking through block decking I found the formula to figure out zero deck. 1/2 stroke + rod length + piston compression distance. I'm sure this isn't news to many of you, but it seemed perfectly timed to me.

My inputs came to be (.5 X 3.53125) + 5.7 + 1.655, totaling out to be 9.12065. I'm not around my parts, so the stroke was based off Wiki for a 250, rod length was from this page
http://users.erols.com/srweiss/tablersn.htm#Chevy
and piston CD was from Summit Racings specs on the ones I just ordered.

Should I tell my machinist to deck it to 9.12? Would that be a good starting point?

I'm sure some of my writing may seem simple to the more experienced inline crew, but I'm just learning as I go here. I would like to thank everyone for the help so far, it's been great!