A thicker headgasket effectively increases the volume of the combustion chambers thus raising compression ratio. Shaving the head would obviously be counteracted by this.

You wanna see a dome piston? Look at a CTR piece. All a domed piston really is, is one with a positive dome displacement. Dished is negative displacement, flat-top is "no" displacement.

I think the main point is that he wanted to practice doing the machine work and wanted to know if there are any ill effects.

 

Wouldn't a larger combustion chamber mean a lower compression ratio? Kinda like how a PR3 head on a B18C block will yield a lower C/R than a P72 head on the same block?

 

Ah crap you're right.

What I meant to say, was to address this:
and say the opposite.