What tools do you need, is there some sort of beginners "kit" you can buy, and where did most of you who do your own porting first learn, books or friend or whatnot?

 

I started mine with a dremel. That's not a good idea Although I do suggest starting with a dremel to get a feel for how to do it, without having enough power to really mess something up.

A few months ago I bought a nice die grinder bit and have been using the air die grinder at work. You will need one of these. Try and get two bits at least, one regular and one with a long shank to get down into the runners. Other than that summit sells a porting and polishing kit, I don't know if it's good or not, I haven't tried it.

John

 

Give this site a look, I think it pretty much answers any questions you might have.

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.htm

 

Yeah, leave the Dremels to the guys who like to carve little critters out of balsa wood.

If you plan on using something like that alot.... cleaning welds, debur, whatever... you might want to buy something of better quality like a Bosch or Milwaukee electric. If you have the air.. go pneumatic. If you probably aren't ever gonna use a die grinder again after doing your head game... but something like a Makita electric... they're pretty inexpensive.
You will need the sanding rolls and some decent burrs. Check out SA abrasives and some of the tool outlets for burrs. Just make sure to get burrs for non ferrous materials... the tight-tooth cutters will just load up.

Vizard has a book on porting small block chevy heads... check Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.. That would be required reading. If you can get with someone who ports and knows their stuff that'd be great but that's not always easy to do. Common sense and practice goes a long way though.... may want to find a junk head to start with. Good luck!

-Mindgame

 

Wow thanks for that link! Anything or anywhere else to get info? Also Im certainly not expecting anything spectacular out of my work for atleast some time if I decide to go into this, but how do the guys like skarodom or nighttrain get such great results, are there tricks to the trade you just pick up yourself after porting for a while or is there a definite science to it you just have to learn elsewhere or is it just basic porting that they seem to do a spectacular job at?

 

You may want to check out www.projecttransam.com

They have a lot of different links and how-to's that may be of interest to you.

 

I ported my own LT1 heads it actually wasnt to hard at all. Just make sure you do your rough porting with a carbide tool and air compressed drill otherwise you will get nowhere fast then go to the sand flaps they are a circular dremel attachment with sandpaper flaps on em they work beautifully. The best site is that standard abrasives site though.

 

If you're comparing the cost of DIY vs. paying someone else, you may end up spending nearly just as much for much less performance this route. Porting heads is fun, but to do it properly, the equipment is fairly expensive. You can't run a die grinder off of a cheap compressor, even if it runs constantly, it wont keep up... so that leaves most with electric grinders. Once you buy one of those, you'll need to spend some $ on burrs. I'd suggest you stick with a singlecut carbide burr and stay away from alumacut burrs unless you really know what you're doing. If I were doing it, I'd stay away from things like that SA kit... unless you just want to polish the sh*t out of something and make it pretty. If you're gonna do it, spend some $ and do it right. Porting is alot of fun, but it's something that takes a huge commitment to learn and practice if you want to be any good at it. Another misconception is that people don't realize that this stuff is a science. Before we even touch a head we can calculate pretty accurately what we'll get out of certain dimensions, because quite frankly you can only get so much air through X crossectional at X pressure differential. Because of that, I tend to raise an eyebrow at people who are supposedly great at it when they proclaim, "we were totally surprised." I know I know.. some will take luck every time

As far as how some of us get the results we do, I cant speak for everyone, but the big difference is in the level you're used to producing something at. Most shops are 90% street and 10% race if that.. where those values are transposed regarding what we've been up to. There are things you learn in more extreme examples when you do that day in and day out, that you'd never notice in a relatively mild setup. So most places honestly don't have the opportunity to test and learn on a higher level, and go back and apply that to lower level apps. That first big gain (for experienced guys) is relatively easy to achieve, but it's having to finesse the last 12-15cfm (at all lift levels, not just peak) out of a cylinder head where the experience shows. Unfortunately for alot of people, the latest tech isnt in books, we don't give it out... though some may if you make nice with them & earn their trust. You know the whole, it isnt what you know, it's who you know deal .

If you're wanting something for yourself personally, save $ and have someone who knows what they're doing do it "right." If you're wanting to learn something, forget equipment right now, just start studying.

Good Luck

-Phil

 

Yeah I figured it would cost as much to do it yourself as have someone else do it, unless your good and sell a few sets it doesnt seem like it would be worth it to me at the time, but thanks for the replys and Ill just read up on it for now. Thanks again!