Thanks for post, I read it twice. I didn't like hearing about the 'optimistic CR numbers' Oh dear, more woe. Some of the things you talked about I have already mentioned previously but to save you trawling through the whole thread again I will briefly mention again: The bottom end is all done so I won't be doing anything more on that. I did briefly look at the Holden pistons but they wouldn't fit with these light, full floating rods I had lying around (resized, stress relieved, weight matched and fitted with ARP bolts). I checked the piston height in the bore as 66fs mentioned and they are level with the deck. It is essentially a "re-ringer" with a few extras. The condition when pulled apart was so amazingly clean and obviously low miles, that's why I chose this path of rehone and reusing the pistons (new 273 pistons are hard to get and Egge ones were too expensive for this exercise). Yes I knew that the 2.02 valves in the Edelbrocks were too large for this capacity engine. As for cam, I already had a small solid grind on the shelf not doing anything, around 0.47 lift, and since I wanted this 273 to be a mech cam engine (which a 67 engine should have been), it was perfect. Mopar M1 dual plane with a 1" spacer, small ports on the heads will be port matched to that (not much to remove really).
Yes I looked at getting intake surfaces milled and it is cheaper, $550 compared to about $950, but after reading people's posts here about that I thought it would be a good idea to not touch a brand new intake but rather get all the milling done on the heads. Then I can swap intakes and not worry about altering it and then having an intake that will only fit that engine. I didn't want to be spending $1000 or more on these very average 318 heads, when I can see that Edelbrock complete bolt on ones are only a bit more than that! I suppose in this instance the old 273 with its small capacity is a little limited in what can be done these days (esp down under where old chrysler stuff is often very hard to source - eg closed chamber heads!). Anyway, I have just bought some stainless exhaust valves (single groove) super cheap, they were on special A$60 delivered, set of 8. They are 1.6", so maybe I could decide to put them in , and no great loss if I decide not to. I read that the larger exhaust valve can improve low down torque (from a Mopar head porter) but will have to research that a little more
As 66fs said, I have everything I need for a nice street 273. I could always get the heads milled to the maximum of 10thou, then wouldn't need to worry about the intake, and if I used a 0.021 copper gasket, should bring the comp up a bit more.
66fs - as for using a windage tray, I did think about it but more cost and I already have new ARP main bolts to use. It is not necessary for how I will be driving it, as a normal car mostly - as nm9stheham mentions, it is 90% about the torque and drive-ability factor. However it has a nice DRTC fitted now.
