5.7 Heads Question

[Montreal300]

I have a few questions about the 5.7 heads that maybe some of the "motor heads" could answer.

Is there any value in milling the 5.7 heads to bring up CR from 9.3 to 10.5? Is there enough material or are these thin wall castings?

Are the chamber volumes even or would there be a benefit in cc'ing the heads? Is there enough material to do some minor shaping around the valves?

How well are the ports matched to the intake and exhaust manifolds? Is porting and polishing worth while?

The reason behind the questions is that I used to do this stuff to heads in the 60s and 70's and always found improvements. However, in those days castings were pretty sloppy so there was always room for getting them "up to spec" or better and there was plenty of material to work with. I don't know much about these heads so an education from forum members is in order.

I know the Eagle heads are far better that the early 5.7 heads but, 5.7 heads are easy to get and I have the tools, skills and time to play with them. Call it a low cost hobby.

Thanks in advance for any responces.

[bmeyer40]

The heads can be milled .030 which will bump to compression somewhere over 10:1. There is plenty of improvement CNCíng and Polishing can do for these heads. Larger valves can also be installed. Talk to Inertia or one of the other vendors here for a set ready to go.

[Montreal300]

The heads can be milled .030 which will bump to compression somewhere over 10:1. There is plenty of improvement CNCíng and Polishing can do for these heads. Larger valves can also be installed. Talk to Inertia or one of the other vendors here for a set ready to go.

Thanks for the responce. Although I'm sure the vendors could probably do a better job, doing this kind of work is the way I relax. It takes a while but it sure feels good when everything gets installed and running.

[James@MWP]

When I had a Sparrow Cam only car, FRI milled my heads. Along with changing the Headers to SRT8, I gained about 70 hp. So milling the stock heads does help.

[Montreal300]

When I had a Sparrow Cam only car, FRI milled my heads. Along with changing the Headers to SRT8, I gained about 70 hp. So milling the stock heads does help.

Wow, nice gain in power. Thanks for the feed back!