K guys I 'm rebuilding my motor and I'm spending some bucks so I was wondering how you self port and polish dudes did you intake manifold and heads? What did you use a dremel? And with what bits. I did my MAF myself and it turned out awesome but dunno about the heads and the plenum.

Thanks all......

 

I don't usually work on car stuff, but for the aluminum boat engine blocks and heads I use a Dremel with a "tootsie roll" cutting kit and then the polishing kit.

Greg

 

I did my LT4 heads and Intake myself. I bought the kit from summit part#sum-g1060. Its a real nice kit to use. Even comes with HOW TO instructions for the beginner. I have ported quite a few heads and intakes. I have bought alot of these kits and never had any complaints. I also have many bits I have collected over the years from other sources, but this kit will do fine for the beginner.

 

In my opinion to do the intake is a waste of time. When I did my heads I used a compressor and a die grinder. You can get a small compressor from e-bay very cheap also you can get a die grinder for about $19 from home depot. I bought some carbide burrs for aluminum from the Eastwood Company and also sandpaper mandrels from them. The Intake side of the heads I used the felpro gasket to outline how far to go. The gaskets have the same opening dimensions as the intake itself. At first I used the rough fast removing carbide burr to take off the bulk of the material (be careful not to eat through the runner. I took off a bunch of material all through the intake runners. After the intakes were close I used and inside micrometer to make sure all the runners were the same. After that I just used 50 grit rolls to leave the runners nice and rough. The intakes you want rough so that the fuel atomizes well as it is going down the runner. For the exhaust runners I made a templet from cardboard from the header openings. Then I Scribed the openings onto the heads and used the carbide burrs to smooth out the whole lenght of the runners. After they were all the same I used 320 grit mandrels to smooth out all the runners. You want the exhaust runners to be very smooth not like the intake runners. Finally I smoothed out all of the combustion chambers with the 320 grit rolls.
It's not hard just very time consuming. Also be very carefull not to eat through the sides of the intake runners. Then when I was done I took the heads in for a 3 angle valve job. Guys at the shop were very impressed with the job.

 

Hey Filbie did you have to remove the valves before the port and plish? And how far in did you guys go?

Oh yeah...so let me get this right the intake ports on the head you left rough, no polish just porting? And screw the intake then? Just leave it?

 

I agree with filbielansk almost 100% however, if you're putting on a 58mm throttle body you DO want to make sure your intake is ported at the openings to accept the extra air coming from the TB. make sure the combustion chamber looks like a mirror, avoid the valve seats. you shouldn't need to do a valve job so long as you do a good job lapping the valves before you put the heads back together.
Also, i have heard and read that you should leave a 'step' between the exhaust ports and the header flange so that there is a drop in pressure when the exhaust gas meets the header. I just smoothed the hell out of mine but did not really do any porting at all on the exhaust side. as for the intake side, do as the other guy said and attach the intake gasket, use something to scribe a nice outline on the head and then take out all that extra metal. do NOT waste your time with a dremel, it takes way to long. you may use a dremel to do some touching up as the dremel does a more detailed job in hard to reach areas, otherwise use a die grinder, get some nice carbide cutters and some real GOOD earplugs! voice of experience here!
oh, and plan to put about 20 - 30 hrs into this, especially if it's your first time. as for me, i don't ever want to port a pair of cylinder heads again! but it was fun, just so time consuming

 

unless its for a learning expierence, id suggest getting a pro to do them. After the cost of of a kit, valves, valve seals, valve job, decking the heads, valve springs, hot tanking and all that jazz, its only $300 - $500 more. well worth it in my opinion. you are going to be there for hours and the results wont be as good. Valvetrain is a great place to spend money.

just my 2 cents

 

Go read up on it, and when you feel comfortable that you have a good idea on how it's done start on it. I used a dremel for the ports, and an air powered die grinder for the rest.

 

Head porting

 

Thats the same kit that Summit sells. Thats the company who supplies it to them.

 

I dont know aobut a few things on there. first thing i didn't see while skimming through there was knife edging the exhuast valve guides.

The second thing was the combustion chambers. From my BASIC understanding- the shape is VERY importand and kidney shaped CC is a pretty decent shape. Whats with their shape

 

With a Dremel, you'll see our beloved Red Sox win a World Series before you finish porting your heads! Seriously, use an air powered die grinder.

I did do the intake manifold. Start at the top of the runner, and slightly taper the runner down to the gasket matched exit.

The heads should be ported based on the motor you intend to build. For a mild cam/head setup, don't go crazy on head runner volumes or you'll kill velocity. I was able to go more aggressive since I was doing the stroker. Gasket match the intake runner, remove any casting flash etc, slightly open the runner and remove excess material around the valve guides, and open the intake valve throat area to around 90% of the valve size. I found the exhaust to be easier than the intake, and it was easy for me to hit 70+% intake/exhaust flow ratio.

 

Did my rough cuts with a carbide bit on a die grinder for the intake matching and then used a dremel for the rest using 40 grit circular sand flaps and then 80s and so on until I was using the cloth buffers. I thnk there is a pic of em on my site in sig. when you look in the ports just imagine water flowing through it and where the water would become turbulant. Cut sharp edges inside and have nice curves... like a woman yeah

 

whats the average price for a good p&p?

 

One more time fellas.....hahhaa.....I guess I do have to take out the valves huh?

"and open the intake valve throat area to around 90% of the valve size. "

what does that mean Josh?

thanks guys