I need jetting help....

[n_green]

2011 Gasser 300EC. Fitted with a 36mm carb.
Prior to having the head modded I run with a 38 pilot, JD Blue needle clip 2, 168 main. Temps about 20 deg C at 1000m altitude. The bike run great. Prior to this I'd had a really flat top end, this jetting woke it up and made it a lot better. A mate and I were of the opinion that possibly this main was even one size too large hence the needle in clip 2 as a shortcut but I was really happy with it so was happy enough to leave it in there as it was.
Economy was roughly 10l per 100km.

Recently got the head modded, squish is now corrected and is 1.28mm, compression ratio has been lifted from 12.2:1 to 12.7:1. Cylinder was lifted by .55mm, so there is now 2 x .5mm base gaskets.

I can not jet this thing now

Started out doing seat of the pants WOT runs started with same pilot and JD Blue in clip 3. Run from 180 main all the way down to 168 and settled on a 172 main. Still felt rich up top. Went for a 50k spin and used 6.2l of fuel.

Went for a ride today and prior to the ride did a heap of WOT runs using plug chop method. Pretty sure I was doing this wrong.
Started from almost idle in 4th gear on an medium uphill slope. Pinned it WOT and let it go until it was singing for 100m and then killed it, pulled in the clutch and shut the throttle.

I started with a 168 main and went all the way up to a 180 main before the brand new plug showed any colour at all, and even then it was only just off white. So, would 100 - 200m of WOT be enough to colour the plug?
The 168 main felt the best, but after seeing the plug so white it scared me so I left the 180 main in all day. Top end was CRAP. Broke up and pretty much refused to rev past 3/4 throttle which was really only an issue on the firetrails but still annoying. 50k's of riding, 9l of fuel used This was at 25 deg C 1100m altitude.

This is bugging me, prior to this I thought I knew a little bit about jetting but now I'm triple guessing everything I thought I knew.

My main questions:

1) Did I do the plug/throttle chop wrong as asked above?

2) Can anyone with a 36mm carb give me a baseline to go off. Even a different Suzuki needle. Only results in the jetting thread are Simmo's and they are a good baseline but more opinions would be good.

3) Should I just run the same jetting as prior to the head mod, does a head mod actually require any richer mains, or is it usually just a richer pilot? (Pilot circuit is gold with a 38, as is 1.5 turns out and works.)

4) I want to try a Suzuki needle. I own an NEDW, NECW, NEDJ, NECJ. Which one would generally work best and with what baseline jets?

4) Do different needles result in different economy? For example, say I run a JD Blue needle jetted perfectly and then a Suzuki needle, lets say NEDW jetted perfectly. Would fuel economy be the same??

Thanks for any input, this really is doing my head in. And whats worse is I'm yet to install my oval bored 36 x 39mm carb which I'm assuming will require jetting changes again...