Head porting Q's

K

Kiff

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Sep 7, 2009
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16
Obviously a properly flow benched and tested head will flow much better than a home job, but I've been reading a few porting posts and guys saying they've spent between 10-50hrs porting their heads. I didn't go to wild porting my head (scared of cutting into a water jacket or head bolt hole), but still gasket match and worked the bowls some, then polished up the exhaust, I spent maybe 5-6hrs on it. I'm working with quality tools so that may have sped up the process not waiting on a compressor or shotty bits, but I'm thinking I may have missed something.

Second, I just found a awesome picture showing a cutaway of the head and where all the water jackets and such are, and realize I could take out a little more material. I dropped my head off at the shop today to get tanked and valves cut. How much difference is it going to make if I just leave it with basically a gasket match and polish? Obviously it will help significantly over stock, and with the new cam is going to really improve flow, but is it worth it to take the head apart once it's back and hog out more from the exhaust bowls and ports?

Looking for informed answers
 
a good gasket match and polish will do wonders, cleaning the bowls will help as well. Getting further into it yourself isn't something I would mess with without a flow bench.
 
A good valve job does wonders on any cylinder head. You want to do most of your port and polish work before the valve job though so you don't knick it up when you're getting into the bowls. You can't do a whole lot to the intake unless you cut the intake off. A gasket match on exhaust is pretty good but the air flow is choked off somewhere else. Bowl work is a plus though but there is much more that can be done with the intake cut off. Its really hard telling what you've gained without flowing it.
 
ok, that's what I was wondering, I have gasket matched it, left maybe 1/16 or less on the head side of my gasket and smoothed around the edges, the manifold I cut away right to the gasket line. I know I dont want to play with it after I got it back from the machine shop, just wondering if the pros would outweigh the cons, and it doesn't sound like it would since I don't have a flow bench and have already GM the ports
 
yep bigger ports arnt always better, and while you have the tools out port and polish your exhaust manifold too, even if its a aftermarket one. (idk about the steed ones though)
 
I would leave it alone. Let someone that has way more experience open it up. Experience is good. You can get in trouble real fast with porting. You can remove the material, but you can't put it back.
 
^^what he said^^ without a flow bench you dont know whether you ve helped or hurt yourself. With a flow bench you know you ve actually gained from the porting job, you dont have a clue what you got if you go grinding on it.
 
understood, how about the manifold? 1&6 there is lots to take off the inside corner for a more direct flow, and 3&4 have a huge portion that is blocking the flow to the turbo port. Why is that? I would think taking that part out would make a huge improvement to flow
 
Manifold= Port it to. I do all of mine,that i put on my builds. It makes a big dif. Gasket match the ports.
 
Kiff said:
understood, how about the manifold? 1&6 there is lots to take off the inside corner for a more direct flow, and 3&4 have a huge portion that is blocking the flow to the turbo port. Why is that? I would think taking that part out would make a huge improvement to flow
Click to expand...

Lostnwalmart said:
yep bigger ports arnt always better, and while you have the tools out port and polish your exhaust manifold too, even if its a aftermarket one. (idk about the steed ones though)
Click to expand...

Cough cough :Cheer:
 
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