1967LimeGoldMustang
New member
Econoline":dzn95zmm said:Hi Carson. What is the condition of the short block? That will determine what is going to be best to raise the compression.
Basically, you'll mill the head to compensate for thicker modern gasket and mill further to shrink the combustion chambers and achieve the c/r you are shooting for. It's based upon the deck clearance, which is the minimum distance of the crown of the piston to the deck and the volume of the combustion chambers, along with the volume of the piston dish, gasket thickness, gasket bore etc. But once you know those two numbers , after actually measuring them, you can calculate the static compression based upon the other specs of the 200 engine. Once you pick a cam you can plug in those numbers and calculate the effective stroke and the real or dynamic compression ratio. Like David said it's really important to know what you plan to do with the car, i.e daily driver or weekend hot rod etc. What type of transmission rear ratio and so on. Highway driving vs around town etc.
From there you'll develop a plan based upon what you have, iow if the short block is ok, maybe just a cam/lifters and a new timing set for it, maybe bearings and a re-ring. But if you need to rebuild the block you'll want to mill the deck for near zero clearance then mill the head the to get the rest to the goal, i.e 9.1-9.5 sc/r but it's cam dependent as well, which is dependent on the intended use etc. You see? That's why it's important to 1, know what you've got and the 2, make a coherent plan to get there within budget.
A goal of 150hp at the wheels is a good one, 200 is alot to go for without a full blown build and/or turbo.
Thank you very much Seth for the explanation. I am taking this very slow and gathering tons of information on this topic from all you awesome people.
Around 150hp to the wheels would be totally awesome and enough for me and my expectations. I was only looking for 200hp or so at the flywheel.
Thanks,
Carson