Ride Height problem...please advise.

[trapin]

Take a look at the first pic (taken last Summer). This is the ride height of the rear of the car. The tires are 26" tall on 17" wheels. The springs are DS&E 3" drop springs (loosely installed). There's roughly 3.5 inches from the top of the tire to the wheel lip. How much can I expect this gap to decrease when the engine/trans/gas tank with gas and interior is installed? How much will the springs settle? As it stands I'm thinking about running a 2" lowering block to start out with and then trimming the block to adjust the height later. I have heard that going over a 1" block will cause some kind of ride problem....what problem would this be? Wheel hop?. If so, will a set of Cal-Track bars correct this? I should point out (in pic 2) that I am using DS&E's mono-to-multi leaf conversion kit. The aluminum blocks you see pictured I am having duplicated and made taller so that they saddle the entire side of the 2" block from top to bottem. The 2" blocks and duplicates of the DS&E blocks are billet aluminum and NOT cast.

Talk to me. Thanks guys.