i am involved with a race club up here in canada called the canadian vintage modifieds. we run pre 1948 all steel bodies and inline 6 motors. max size for the chevs is 255ci. stock block, head and crank. we can only go .040 over. im am begining to build my first motor and was wondering if anyone could send me in the right direction as to how to get decent power, yet still be reliable and not spend too much money. we are geared to top at 7000-7300rpm on the straights if that helps. anymore questions on rules just go to www.vintagemods.com and go to the rule book. any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks alot, mitch

what can you do to the head? ANYTHING? or does it need to remain stock?(ie. stock vlaves No Boss removel no porting Or Lump porting, Gasket matching the Ports ? )

OK from what i just read. It didn't say anything about Not being able to Port the Head. JUST NO bigger Valves. SO my 2 cent input is this.
1) CHECK to see if you can Remove The Bolt boss.
2) see if you can Clean up the Ports/Open the port
around the Valve area as long as you stay with the
stock valving.
3) see you if you can Lump port the Head.

For the way I read it This should be do able. Nothing there says You can't

Larry's suggestion of lump porting would give you the biggest boost, but your rules allow a Clifford Intake which can be internally cleaned up to +/- 1/4 inch and that's a lot.Also, any cam,other then roller type, which gives you lots of possibilties and any non Magneto ignition which can lead to improvement in performance too.
What are other teams doing?

alot of guys are just putting big money into pistons, rods, cams etc. ill talk to a couple of guys and see what they say abuot lump porting. see if someone has tried it already etc. thanks alot for your help guys!

Yes; pistons & cams are the only way. The "lump port" modification is for the 'later' head design, which isn't pre 48.

You can put larger valves in (early design) them though. Check with Phillip @ Patrick's.

You'll need to "strap the mains" to handle the added compression too.

Good luck.

John
The bodys can of the Later Body style. Where as the Motor can Be more up to date. The Motors do not need to match the Body Year. Nore The Body Make. I have a friend here who runs a Older ford body with a Chevy 250

Okay then; "lump ports/headwork" is the key.