So zero deck with that .041 gasket will work fine. If that gives you the compression you need.
I've never heard of changing compression by cutting the pistons. I was thinking you'd cut in the center of the piston so it wouldn't affect quench. The center of the piston has nothing to do with checking deck or zero decking! Its a trade secret that very few people outside of professional race shops or performance engine building know how to do correctly. Cutting the pistons is the only way you can ever get all 6 of them to have the same quench, just decking the block will not do this, it is only for getting the .
So they'd have to take it out of the combustion chamber to change the compression ratio? Again what tool would I use to measure that when changing it? Burette.
EDIT: I read around a bit more and a few engine builders recommend a quench of .050" for a safe bet. If I deck it down to 0.050" from 0.056" (0.041" gasket + 0.015" deck clearance), I'll get that quench, the deck can be cleaned up with a .006" cut, and I only need to take out 2cc of each chamber for a 9.0:1 CR or 6cc for 8.65:1. Or anywhere in between.
