To port or not to port

Bighorny

Bighorny

All throttle
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
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Does anyone have any data on the increased flow achieved after porting and polishing your head and switching to a high flow intercooler?

I want to keep this years truck in the 2.6 class, so I am looking at other ways to get more are into the cylinders. I know porting and polishing or the high flow intercooler will not ultimately give me any more boost but, I would think that there would be a great deal more flow into the cylinder.

Has anyone done these mods? Pros? Cons? HP increase?
 
Talk to John Robinson from Texas Diesel Power. He has been apposed to ported and polished heads for years. He just put his first all out ported and polished head on from Dealers Machine. Lower boost, lower EGT's, more power, MORE POWER, better responce etc.

Talk to John.
 
We full ported & polished our head last year before installation and seen good results in spool up & performance and Egt's as well. I would get her done cause your almost there anyhow!! :st:
 
engine=air pump so more air= more power... you got the money/ time i'd do it... next thing i'm doin
 
I will get into more detail when i have more time but with our racepak we can see exactley what the ported head brought to the table & it was huge!!
Boost dropped from 64 psi to 42 psi
Turbo air temp dropped from 650 to 400 degrees
Egt`s dropped from 2200 to 1700
We were careful not to change anything in the tune up except the head so we could really see what it did. I will try to get the data logger graph`s posted up so you can see. A half azz ported head head wont bring those kind of numbers but this head did.I will get a few pics up in a little bit.
 
Here ya go.
 

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wow John you like porting now , a year ago you said that quote " porting a Cummins head was the stupidest thing anyone could ever do ", I guess we all learn after a while


That a great copy of the head that Chris Franks at RayMac sponsored for Project X diesel ,

Dealer Machine is the hobby shop in the back of the dealership that provided the Truck for Project X .
 
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I've posted this else where but it's relevent to the topic at hand. Below is the port flow numbers we found on our LSR Cummins after a full port and an aftermarket manifold.

Stock w/stock plenum:
lift/cfm: 0.100/73 .150/99 .200/122 .250/135 .300/140 .350/142 .400/143 .450/144 .500/143 .550/144 .600/144

Fully ported, aftermarket manifold
lift/cfm: .100/81 .150/108 .200/138 .250/161 .300/160 .350/195 .400/206.4 .450/215 .500/221 .550/227 .600/232
 
here are the numbers from the Chriss Franks head on Project X diesel .
.050 49.3 cfm , .100 92.1cfm , .150 122.3 cfm , .200 153.7 cfm .250 173.2 cfm , .300 195.7 cfm , .350 209 cfm .400 220.7 cfm , .450 230 cfm , .500 236 cfm the head flowed 274 open holes , I didn't flow above .500
the stock head on the flow bench I use are 144 cfm


these ported heads, are dramatically changing the way we think about tuning I am starting to look at lower Pressure ratio's for the turbo’s .

The more air you can flow throu the head the less boost needed to more the same CFM of air . Now lower boost numbers will cause a lot of people to look at turbo;s with maps that are most efficient at lower boost ,
This rids the engine of back pressure , and heat. Allowing the compression ratio’s to be higher equating more efficient engines
 
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But is it really worth it ?? Kent crowder dynoed a engine few weeks ago 24v ppump it was the 2nd highest they done for this class EGTS were 1400+ (no water) and uses mildy ported 24v head still has the stock intake on it so just some mild blowl work and exhaust is done . I was thinking of doing a full port job on a extra head I have but when and were and what level??? John those bowls look awsome any better pics?
 
Like John said, it all depends on who does the port work. I know on 6.0 Power Strokes, it really matters. My heads done by Elite flow close to 10+ percent better than most of the competition.

The head John has from Dealers Machine done extremely well. The funny thing about his results, he doesn’t even have their all out port job.
 
comp.461, john r , thank you all over it, by far. alky blown, inject. & 1000 hp. nat. carb. tracktors have seen tis for long time. yes , port,polish & matched intake is like a paint job. the fuel will hit on side chambers on some spot's & vourtext on other spot's. it's all about fuel &air in &out, atominzing& mixing . now let's mix this with stroken, crank gerdel of course.
 
Greg quit trying to make this into a infomercial for your good buddys. If you will recall.........I installed a head that a customer of mine had bought from "the other guy" that cost $4500.00.........results were poor. We never saw $4500.00 worth of gain. Your guy had his shot. By the way if you will recall he bid me $7000.00 to port a head for my dragster back in the day.......Get real!!
The number's i'm posting are real numbers that mean something......A true before & after test with the only agenda being knowledge & a very good data logger to back it up.
 
cmtpullin said:
comp.461, john r , thank you all over it, by far. alky blown, inject. & 1000 hp. nat. carb. tracktors have seen tis for long time. yes , port,polish & matched intake is like a paint job. the fuel will hit on side chambers on some spot's & vourtext on other spot's. it's all about fuel &air in &out, atominzing& mixing . now let's mix this with stroken, crank gerdel of course.
Click to expand...

please get off the computer and back to your ESL class
 
Thanks Forrest, Numbers were exactly what I was looking for. I would say that represents significant gains. The only p+p I was considering was an all out complete job. Go big or go home as they say. I am definitely going to go forward on this. Here is the next thing I would like to here from you guys on.

My thinking is that with more air and cooler egt's i could through even bigger sticks in for the track. Current running 250hp injectors with flow matched 6 hole nozzles. Any ideas as to how much more fuel all that increased air could use?

Also, along with the head the Spearco intercooler and custom exhaust manifold should further increase flow and and decrease egt's. When you got those numbers did it include any of those mods?
 
Thanks, by the way I was out in Edmonton a few months back. You Canucks got some unbelievable cold winters.
 
Guys,

I completely agree that there are cheaper ways to make more power. Crowder has something going for him that I dont and that is that he has no limit to turbo sizing. I can't increase my turbo size and remain in the 2.6 class. So I have to find power elsewhere. If I were not trying to stay in the 2.6 I would definitely not be looking at head work right now.

Bigger turbo(more air) + more fuel = more power. Thats a given. So increasing my flow is really my only option at this point.

On another note, any of you guys going to Octane fest in Fallon Nevada?
 
Air flow improvements are the first major expenditure to a high hp engine that is going to last. The benefits are cooler air in to the engine, lest boost , and the resultant drop in drive pressure in the exhaust manifold . Can power be made with stock heads , the answer is YES , but at higher boost levels , higher driver pressure ,and more retained heat. Every wonder why some people are always changing head gaskets , or burning pistons . Others including Project X diesel made power with stock head gaskets and ARP 2000 head studs with Zero Retorque .
I was a ZZ custom Fabrication this last week, , and he had a shop full of heads , this shows that the masses are starting to look towards head porting
 
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