Milling 218 head

[jimwheeldon]

Does anyone know how much to mill the head on my 50 218? I have it apart and would like to up the power reasonably. Anything else I should do while it's apart? Thanks-Jim

[bob westphal]

Jim,

Click the search button on header of the forum page. Then type in 'head milling chart' and click go. It will take you to a list of threads on this subject. Look at the first thread and read down the replys. Don Coatney shows a milling chart that will answer your question.

Bob

[Norm's Coupe]

Milling a head doesn't cost much. I paid $35 to have mine done. That was back in 1998 though, so may be slightly higher today. I had to mill mine by .035 to make it flat. If the engine is out and taken apart, I'd also shave the deck of the block. That will also boost compression a little. Don't know the cost of that alone as it was done when I had the ports bored and the cost was combined altogether.

[Merle Coggins]

That's about what I paid this past summer. I think one was $35 and the other was around $25. It was all part of more work, so I don't remember exactly.

Merle

[greg g]

You can go .090 but, you would need to run premium gas. You can take .070 off and still run on regular. You can also take material off the block and head for any combination up to those numbers. I took .040 of my head and .010 of the block. Mine is a 56 230 engine that started out at 7.5 to one, my machine shop guy said with the .050 off in combination with a .030 overbore should have my Compression Ratio at or near 8.5 to 1.

[james curl]

I took .090" off of the 41 dodge 218 in my 48 Plymouth and had to relieve over the valves for clearence. The valves would either almost cut or cut the solder I put across them when they were all the way open. I relieved the area over the valves until I obtained .060 clearence with the valves all of the way open. When I had the machine work done they also surfaced all of the mating faces on the block, do not know how much they took off of the top of the block or if the head had been surfaced in the past. So be sure to check clearence after having the head milled. I started out using modeling clay on the surface of the valves. After opening the valve I trimed the clay around the edge of the valve to measure the clearence. Reverted to solder as it is easier to measure.