Don't we all

I am not that familiar with porting myself, but I have been taught well by Mr. Dutra, and take that information to heart, so when I do my head (sometime in the next 5k years) I will be able to pick it up, an git 'r done.


Not trying to thread-jack here:
.100 is safe, although you may notice a bit of oil burning from your rings if the engine has alot of miles on it, due to the increased CR (Compression Ratio). The surface finish is really important when it comes to gasket choice. Certain types of gaskets require certain levels of roughness, called the RA, or Roughness Average. Most places who are just planing the head so they can slap it back on utilize a belt sander, which works better on Cast Iron than Aluminum. The problem with belt sanders is that it is impossible to tell how much material you take off the head while sanding.

If the machinist uses a CBN cutting head, then the surface finish produced will be just fine (around 20 RA, which produces an almost mirror like finish) The CBN has a dial of sorts, so that the machinist can run the head down exactly .100 from its starting point.

A CBN cutting head produces among the most smooth surface finishes available by todays machinists, so you need not worry about it being "too smooth."

~THOR~

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1984 D100 Shorty Custom
Certified Auto Appraiser - RevItUp Classic Appraisals
President - Cherry City Bombers CC
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

I found this article about porting very helpful. http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.aspx

For your engine build, you will not need "100 hours" of porting time.
All the SL6 heads I rebuild get at least 1 hour of porting work, just to get all the sharp edges and casting "bumps" blended. Just a little time spent helps a SL6 head a lot.
DD

Daniel and Dart,

I found the long stem burr to work best (about 6 inches long) and a christmas tree shape burr is very useful indeed. I bought a high quality set of 4 shapes for about $100 from a welding place but you don't that many or that good a burr. Check out an old post of mine from last summer where I had a head all done to match a big aussie manifold gasket, after about 5 Saturday mornings. I thought I would do one more hit.....and went through an exhaust water jacket. Tears indeed. If you have a junker head bust it up with a hammer to see how the jackets go and how much meat you have in places.

It is relatively easy, its fun and you will not believe how fast a burr cuts cast iron (wear eye protection!). This is not like working steel with a file.

rock
'64d100

I think your putting to much thought into what Doug is saying and what the words "Port and Polishing" mean. For what Doug is trying to say you don't need a flowbench or a 100 hours but one Saturday. Just take an intake/exhaust gasket and bolt it up to the head. Take your grinder and "match" it, I gurantee this will help and not hurt your flow. This "gasket matching" is the easiest and best bang and home builder can do. I've done it on my in progress slant and a couple 302's it's very nice and consistant.
"Porting" on the other hand is cutting into the actualy head and making your own rectangle, oval, whatever. This can hurt your velocity and flow if you take to much, to little, or are not consistant between the cylinders.

I remember a person that if you sent him your head he could port, polish, bigger valves, etc.. and do all that stuff for ya for $$$ I don't remember his/her name

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-1972 Valiant-

'72 Valiant

I understand exactly what he meant and that not every head has to be fully ported an polished.
What I meant by having 100's of hours to do the work would be my learning curve for each different type of head plus doing the actual heads on all of my engines. I may not have the largest or most valuable collection but I do have a lot of mopars and mopar engines on stands.
I talked a few times with some head guys and they talked like it was nothing to sink 15 hours into a head! (and they know what they are doing.)

That flowbench may pay for itself after a few engines....
I wonder how much they are? It sure would be nice to have a way to gauge ones progress after all that work.

On the other hand I have tried to contact Shady Dell Speed Shop several times (left phone messages, PM's, and posts) and all went unanswered. Their knowledge on mopar small block seems second to none and the work I have seen on Moparts (sorry everyone) was outstanding. Anyone have a way to get ahold of them? I wanted them to do some work on my MP R/T's...

Does anyone have any photos of their slant head that they have done (pics of the during process would be extremely benificial to me)?
How much metal are you guys removing with the pocket porting? Hardly any? Quite a bit?

Thanks for all the thoughts, help, and links (which was very easy to read and useful). Any further tips or thoughts (good or bad) are always welcome.

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

I had mine bowl ported and gasket matched by our local drag strip engine shop, however I went back in and cleaned up (smoothed out) the intakes even more. We didn't do as much to the exhaust. Instead, we spent alot of time on the intake. We did open up and smooth out the exhaust manifold allot.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

Here is a good head porting thread with instructions and pictures from Doctor Dodge.

Danny

Years ago (probably late 80's early 90's) the car mags all built there own and published the articles. It involved hair dryer type of technology but it would show the before and after difference.
I don't know if anyone would remember where to find this info.
This was before all of the mags where under one roof(when HOT ROD and Car Craft hated each other). And way before the car mag empire had their own dyno's and flow benches.

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Chris'
Autobody
Restoration
Service

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/users/parmega/ ... lowbench2/

Amazing what you can find on the net! Do a search and start building!!!

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Chris'
Autobody
Restoration
Service

Awesome, That may work well for a bit.

As stated at least you get a before and after change. It may not be super sensitive to small changes or very accurate, however you can tell if you are increasing performance or ruining your head(s).


I love this line from the above article:

"What is this for, what does that do, why did you make it this way, what kind of motors did you use and how did you calibrate it?"
Clark and MSD graciously answered any questions we posed, and offered suggestions and encouragement along the way.

I was talking with a fellow the other day about his 650+ engine he was running and I asked him a few questions. He told me about most of it but said he definately had some secrets he would never tell anyone.
I also was told by a person that they could tell if my car was a real A12 by a photo of the driver side firwall area. He too would not tell the his secret and I have seen lots of Bees and even A12 bees but I have yet to notice any difference that would be in that area.

I am definately going to try to reproduce this flowbench. I wonder how much it'll cost in the present times...$1,700.00?

_________________
1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

The world of surplus or ebay may be your friend. Ten of these would max out a 20 amp 115 vac circuit.
http://surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2 ... tname=misc

One thing you have to remember about porting a Slant head, what you leave alone is way more important than just grinding away anything you can. Slant ports are pretty easy to get into reversion.

Same thing with too big of valves. Too much valve gets you into shrouding by the cylinder wall, especially on a stock or light overbore.

1.88" intakes fit and work like crazy on a flow bench, but will not flow much better than a stock valve once the head is on the motor.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.