I have a pair of 587 heads that I've been using on my 318. Of coarse this has caused low compression so I have them off and I'm going to have them milled.

So how far can I safely have them milled?

use modeling clay to see how much space you will have between the piston and the top of the combustion chamber. make sure you have a gasket on when you put the clay in. i forgot how much you should have here but im sure someone else will post with a suggestion. but for every .01 you mill i believe you have to mill .005 of each side of the intake. have you thought about going with the 302 heads?

My pistons are 0.054" below the deck and have valve notches in them so I'm not really worried about valve clearence.

In order for me to achieve my goal of 9.5:1 static compression I need to mill 0.065" off my 587 heads and I need to know if the heads themselves will have a problem with this.

I would love to do 302 heads, but these 587s only have about 1000 miles on them. Milling them will only cost about $150 compared to $500-600 to build a set of 302 heads. SO I'd like to go the more inexpensive route.

BTW, I'm also planning on using 0.028" gaskets along with the milling.

not really sure on if they would hold up. try checking with a few machine shops and see what they say. the most ive actually seen anyone do was .03 so its hard to speculate with that much of a milling.

i have a pair that are milled. i'm not sure how much, it was done before i got them. i have 2.08 intake valves in them and i had to notch my plastic plate to cc them and find 60CC chambers .

shane

i got a set of the same heads.
i milled them .060.
you'll be fine.
don't forget to have the intake side cut also.
i forget the amount, but it will help with intake manifold fitting.

If he is using the 318 port size intake the port mismatch will be negligable because they will not match the 587 heads anyway.