balancing/blueprinting the bottom end

[alainmoran]

I have vizards book, and will be reading it thoroughly before I expend any cash on the spare engine ... the main thing for me is to stop it sounding like a bag of nails, but have some fun while I'm at it!

Yes, I should imagine that putting in a K-series would give me more power for similar money, but that's not the point ... I want to learn a new skill & 'simply' swapping out one engine for another isnt going to teach me that.

[mike.perry]

The problem with skimming the head on a s/v is that you can get very close to the water jacket which can cause stress fractures above the piston. You also never know how much has previously been taken off to true the face of the head.
The s/v has a slow combustion and 8:1 is probably a max compression without a total redesign<br><br><br><br>
Comparison of standard and Derrington Alloy head