Im thinking about picking up an extra set of stock heads to work on to minimize downtime during a future cam swap. I dont have the $ for this job yet so im thinking about trying to completely do the heads by myself in the meantime: port, polish, valvejob etc.

I did some searching here but didnt find much. What does it take to do this? I dont want to ask 'is it worth it?' because i know what answer ill get to that Im a patient DIY kind of guy and I have more time than money to spend I did see someone mention a book about this here so im going to try to find that at the mall this week. Lastly im not trying for "THE BEST" here. Im going with a fairly small cam (503) and id like to run a mid to low 12 on street tires, but i wont complain about better! (running 13.5s bone stock motor right now).

i guess im just looking for some writeups to help me better understand what im getting into. if i decide its too much for me i will probably leave the ports alone and just get them milled down a little. any input is appreciated, positive or negative!

 

your getting into alot. And it well cost a good deal in material to port the head. There's also alot of things that can go wrong if you don't know what your doing. That's the honest truth. But with all that aside... you can order kits for porting through summit, and I'm sure theres a how to video available as well.

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

 

Snoop around here...

 

buy Vizard's book on SBC cylinder heads. Yes the LT's are a little different but most of the same stuff applies.

 

wow thats a great link in general, thanks!

yea vizards is the book im going to look for

 

Don't bother with it.....head porting is an art. Probly just ruin a set of cores

 

I wouldn't try more than a few minor things. You don't want to ruin them.

 

shoot me your email addy, i cant post pics, but i have a collection of helpfull pics.only like 10 or so, but i have a cross cut picture that shows how thick the ports are, i have some pics of my heads and i have some pics of heads other people have ported off of here.ive heared that the 342 casting are thicker, and thats the casting number im running, but they seem about the same as the later heads ,imo. the lt4 heads are thick in the port and bowl area. all aluminum lt1 castings are about the same.
i would get an asortmant of carbide burrs for cutting aluminum.youll get mad with those cartrige rolls and sanding drums,they work great fpr polishing,not so much for removing material.also get some machinest dye for marking gaskets and port walls.coat the entire port with the dye, from valve to gasket and then grind all the dye off.do this 3-4times for the intake 5-6 for the exaust .this will enlage the entire port uniformly.then you can concentrate on the valve pockets and areas where the runners make a turn like in the intake ports where they make a turn around the pushrods.stick your fingers in there and pintch the port walls to judge the thickness.3/16ths is too thin,but in some places its only about an 1/8 thick, so be carefull! your time will be best spent in the valve pocket area,smoothing the edges and making the whole pocket area bigger maybe 3 more passes with dye and grinding it off.make the area where the valve guide sticks out into the valve pocket smaller.use carbide burrs on the aluminum and grinding stones on the guide material. the exaust will need more help than the intake, and the walls need to be a little thicker to held guard agenst cracks with the extra heat the exaust makes. the bottom of exaust port is realy thick,it goes all the way down to the deck, so grind the most off of the bottom of the exaust port.another area that realy hurts flow is the sharp corner going into and coming out of the valve pocket.try to make that a stright shot. try to give the gasses a stright shot to the valve on both the intake and exaust,without making the port walls too thin.good luck! you can do it,just take your time.one port a day after work, just go slow.wait untill after porting for the valve job, just in case you get into the valve seat on accedent.
im sure you know about gasket matching, so i wont get into that much.just makesure the port on the head is a lil bigger than the intake.ive peeked down into the intakes with a bore scope,and things never line up perfectly in there.also if you have to cut a lil off the gaskets to make sure they dont hang over into the ports then do so.trace the gaskets with dye and smooth that gasket patern into the port.

 

thanks alot dude. my email is joeliusczar890@yahoo.com

I noticed you said the exhaust is what needs the most work. would porting just the exhaust side of the head be beneficial? (might be a stupid question). I found a guy that is willing to port my heads for $500 or $700 for 'the extra mile' job. maybe he would cut his price down with just exhaust, plus i dont intake ports need to be matched?

 

Cough up the little bit extra, and go with the LE econo heads. Great bang for the buck. Seriously.

 

i was just thinking, and this came up recently in another thread.but, you might think about just ''pocket porting'' them.its alot easier.i cant see where a quick gasket match would hurt either.just do that,you could use a dremel with a small tear drop shaped carbide burr.save that $700-$1200 for a forged crank,h beams, mahle pistons and billit main caps or whatever else.im going to get you some pics of my new heads tomorow,along with those other pics.
dan

 

Leave 'em alone...

You can do mid 12's on a cc503 with a set of drag radials all day long and you don't end up screwing up a good set of cores you could use later on when you have saved enough $$ to get them ported.

 

That was my plan Joel, I think you could do it yourself. You just need to be careful with some of the LT1 intake ports, if you take off too much you hit a coolant passage. I found a ton of info online and I felt confident.

I would just do the ports and bowl area and leave the valve job to the pro's.

It's just patience. Take your time and take off little bits at a time. Talk to Chris, he has a lot of pics of heads he ported himself. He helped me when I was planning on doing mine, I'm sure he can help you.

 

yes, but a set of stock heads is cheaper to mess up than a ring and pinion.

 

I guess it's just me but I find slip and sliding at the track frustrating and boring.