I am with you. The issue today is finding a machine shop, let alone finding one that will tinker with this stuff. I am lucky, a friend of mine owns the machine shop I use. the young man in the photo is his son and he loves to tinker. Rare is all that I can say.
You can actually angle mill the early chevy 6 head. It does help with the horrendous short side radius issue and the 90 degree back wall. But then you are into spot facing the head bolt holes, drilling the head bolt holes, modifying the push rod holes in the head (to fit 3/8 push rods and to accommodate the angle milled head). But really, this kind of stuff is for all out race motors and since there are no longer any competitive racing classes for these old motors, other then say Bonneville or other land speed vintage class races, its a lot of work for some mostly minimal returns.
Me, I think the money is better spent on the rear seal conversion you have sorted out. There is actually a you tube video showing the process but sadly, the man that did the video passed away very unexpectedly. Pop up pistons would go a long way in building a little more usable power. Forged are available from Ross and Venolia but pretty good money. God I wish Jahn's Pistons was still in the business of selling cast pistons or someone unbelievably turns up with his molds for the pop up cast pistons.
What I think would be fun, would be to sort out a way to use say the 292 rod in a 235/261 block and some common off the shelf pistons that would essentially give you a stroked motor, zero deck, with just a minimal amount of decking. I know the caddy piston conversion, but that piston is really hard to come by, required the blocks to be bored out pretty good, and could only be used in a 261.
To sort out a way to easily and reasonably stroke a 235 using common off the shelf parts, and get the compression up to say something along the lines of 9.0 9.25, I think that would be a really nice improvement for vintage cars and trucks power wise. I wish I was more proficient with machine work, measurements, parts books and specifications.
Last edited by Dragsix; 01/07/2022 4:55 PM.
