I have an 84 Chevy P/U with a 454. The cam went flat, and I'm in process of disassembling the engine enough to change the cam. While I'm at it, I would like to remove the heads and have them milled, as well as use steel shim head gasket. According to some math I did, if I can get about .050 out of this arrangement, the engine will gain about .7 of a point to 8.7 to 1 compression ratio, which would be acceptable for this truck. Raising the compression a bit will also allow me to run a slightly larger cam, which as a gear head I MUST do . I'm wondering what the safe maximum is for head milling on this era of big block head, and if I could go even more than the .020 I'm guessing will be necessary. (The guess will become more refined when I can measure the old and new head gaskets)

.020" to .030" should be no problem. Any more than that and you may have manifold issues.

tom

OK, I just spoke to my brother-in-law, and he has FREE cam for me, but it's even bigger than what I had in mind, 222/234deg@.050. I think I will need even more compression for this cam, or maybe I ought to pass up the freebie?