Ported heads, new cam profile???

[tama]

My mods are in my sig along with my last dyno run #'s. I'm going to make some changes to the car, but I want your guys/girls opinion on this one. A local shop can port my heads and change my cam profile. For parts and labor I'm looking at a little over 3 grand. The supposed results should net no less than 340rwhp with a solid tune and my current mods. Is this kind of work worth it for these results

What would you do if you were in my position.

by the way, I just picked 4:30's and I'm waiting on my order of nittos redials to come in. And I do have the money to blow, just wondering if it's worth blowing on ported heads

But 340rwhp n/a on a 98 with 4:30s

 

[99SVTAddict]

If you are n/a, then porting your heads and going with a moderate cam profile (nothing crazy) should net you on average around 25-35RWHP or so.

Most places are telling me I would gain around 40-60RWHP with ported heads (which I just had done) and cams....but I am blown. Problem for us 4V guys is, it's usually $1,000 for cams, plus you usually need to get new springs, which is another $800. I was told the cams would give me around 40 or so RWHP....at $1800 I'd rather just up the boost.

So for you, I'm guessing $3000 for 30RWHP. They are promising you 55RWHP and honestly, I just don't see that happening.

Hopefully others will chime in.....

 

[lafear01]

My mods are in my sig along with my last dyno run #'s. I'm going to make some changes to the car, but I want your guys/girls opinion on this one. A local shop can port my heads and change my cam profile. For parts and labor I'm looking at a little over 3 grand. The supposed results should net no less than 340rwhp with a solid tune and my current mods. Is this kind of work worth it for these results

What would you do if you were in my position.

by the way, I just picked 4:30's and I'm waiting on my order of nittos redials to come in. And I do have the money to blow, just wondering if it's worth blowing on ported heads

But 340rwhp n/a on a 98 with 4:30s

IMHO, 55rwhp is NOT gonna happen. I spent the better part of a year researching CAM profiles/combinations and the expected results. This is the way i see it:
If you get a reputable person/shop (who actually know how to do a good valve job & unshrouding) to P&P your stock heads, you may be able to pull 20rwhp from them. although 15-20rwhp is prolly more likely. Also remember that you will experience a slight loss of downlow TQ, which is what the 96-98 cobras are sorely lacking. Now the CAM profile is what is really gonna determine what your gonna see on the old dynochart. What I mean is there are many many cam profile combos available that vary the duration / lift and overlap. choosing is the key as some cams may get you a good PEAK HP number, but may sacrifice low & midrange grunt.

My advice to you is ask lots of questions about how cams work and what the different specs will dictate. then ask yourself what your really looking to achieve. then make your decision.

Hope this helped

 

[tama]

Well here is what I know, they are not going to port my heads, they are going to replace them all together with ported and polished brand new heads.

here is what they advertise


4.6 DOHC ported/polished heads

Competition porting, competition valve job, Ferrera forged SS bigger valves, Cobra spring package, super flow bench tested, 45-50 RWHP gains over stock heads. Optional: Ferrera 8000 RPM springs with titanium retainers. If you add stage 1 cam shafts to this setup, your Cobra/Mach 1 will make 350-370 RWHP and will have no problem running deep into the 11's at the track on pump gas. The DOHC heads become monsters when you open them up and feed them the correct custom cams. (Your heads exchange.)

Stock DOHC heads
265 intake
200 exhaust
500 lift

stage 1 competition DOHC heads:
310 intake
225 exhaust
500 lift

DOHC = .450 x .450 x 215 duration @ .050 x 114 LSA
Rumpy idle, pulls hard from 2500 to 6500, perfect for a strong N/A motor, excellent for a turbo/blower, ported heads recommended.

All for a little over 3 grand and they claim to still keep the car smog legal. They do have a good reputation around here.

Again, before I spend any amount of money I want experienced opinions from you guys to make sure I don't make wrong choice here

 

[99SVTAddict]

Well, they are reconditioned heads then.....they will use yours for the next guys car. That's why happened to my heads as well.

That's a bold claim they make...I'll just say that.
Look at Lafear01's package (he posted above)...he has a bigbore, ported heads, intake, cams, LT's, o/r X and magnaflows, pulleys, CAI......he put down 375RWHP.

So to take a stock Cobra/Mach1 and advertise that it will put down similar numbers???? I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but just saying that I would be cautious in that venture......

Good luck.

 

[32VHEMIJR]

Tama- what brand of cams are those?

 

[tama]

I was going to post something till I saw those pics. Was that necessary or even relevent( don't think I spelled that correctly) to the topic at hand. I'm all for funny pics and stuff but.....

 

[99SVTAddict]

WTF? I can't even go back to see who posted that.
What a ****ing *******.

I'm out of this post.....

 

[tama]

Thank you moderators for deleting those pics.

 

[tama]

they call it stage one hot street. But I didn't get much more info than that. I did ask them if their heads where repolished used ones, but was told that these were brand new heads that have not seen any miles what so ever.

I did question the tech's advertising and all he told me was that depending on current mods and what stages I decided to go with would determine what kind of numbers I would see.

So to keep it smog legal he said go with stage 1 heads swap and custom cam and I should see no less than 340rwhp

So that is why I'm asking for advice and experience.

 

[32VHEMIJR]

Stage one hot street is a good step, Im just curious about who the manufacturer is.
As far as the heads go, with a B head, I wouldnt port them on a street motor. I would just do a really nice valve job, and do a 30 and 15 degree backcut on all the valves (this is very important). Then I would just do a mild blend job to clean up casting seams, and the transition from the valve bowls to the valve seats. Velocity is super important on a street motor, and B heads are very lacking in this area. Porting the heads will hurt velocity alot. After the piston reaches BDC and starts traveling back up, you want so much inertia with the incoming air charge, that it will continue to fill the cylinders until the valve closes. Otherwise your motor will run like crap below 5k. Match that with some cams and you may not have a big number dyno queen, but you will have a very fast car. I really wouldnt let them talk you into hogging those heads out. Take it from a former engine builder

 

[tama]

So would it be better just to get the cam job done?

Nitrous, not to sure if I'm willing to set that up on my car. And a blower requires engine prep work and lowering of compression to handle boost well. I'm just weighting out my options as to what can I do and is it worth doing in the long run of things

it's not so much dyno numbers I'm looking at, but rather having at least a mid 12 sec snake.

 

[32VHEMIJR]

Get a simmons or PHP ported, slightly shortened runner intake and crane stage 2 NHRA grinds. They're called NHRA grinds for some reason, but they're actually road race cams. Costs something like 500 bucks including lash caps. They also have low lift so you wont have spring issues. Do those 2 things along with a tune and you'll have a solid 11 second snake. Dont be scared of regrinds. Send a PM to 4VMENACE over at corral.net. He used SHM road race cams though. Try PMing 2mystic as well. He ran the cams Im talking about, and made like 335rwhp w/o ported heads.

 

[tama]

will the snake be smog legal???

I live in California so I want to make sure I will not run into smog issues here

 

[32VHEMIJR]

Actually I screwed up. I just looked at a dynojet run file that 2mystic sent me a long time ago. He had ported heads and stock cams. He made 325rwhp SAE and 276rwtq, but his low end was terrible. Only 223rwhp at 4500 rpm. Mine makes 250 with stock timing. He added those cams and another tune and hit 353rwhp, but there was practically no change across the board until about 5800 rpm. He didnt even hit that peak until 7200rpm. Porting B heads is terrible IMO for a street motor.
Anything over 215 duration @.050 on the intake/exhaust and you're really pushing the limits of passing smog, if the cam grind has alot of overlap.
Judging by 4VMENACE's results, the SHM grinds are much better for a B head N/A street car. He gained something like 25rwhp at 4500 rpm. They also got him into the 11's with stock heads.

 

[lafear01]

Thank you moderators for deleting those pics.

what pics?

btw: to elaborate on what addict mentioned about my buildup. i will say that my baseline rwhp/rwtq was 319/317 before and after breakin 375/365. So that's only 56rwhp & 48rwtq. my buildup included a Big Bore on the motor from 3.55 to 3.70 & an increase in Compression (from 9.85.1 to 10.5.1).

Now i will say that the cam specs that they gave were pretty aggressive compared to mine (204/214 dur & .472 life @.050). but i still think that they are 'overstating' the gains you'll see. Also, when you increase the duration to a heavy degree, you WILL LOSE DOWNLOW. so i doubt you'll see big gains at 2500rpm as they seemed to claim.

that's just my .02

 

[lafear01]

Get a simmons or PHP ported, slightly shortened runner intake and crane stage 2 NHRA grinds. They're called NHRA grinds for some reason, but they're actually road race cams. Costs something like 500 bucks including lash caps. They also have low lift so you wont have spring issues. Do those 2 things along with a tune and you'll have a solid 11 second snake. Dont be scared of regrinds. Send a PM to 4VMENACE over at corral.net. He used SHM road race cams though. Try PMing 2mystic as well. He ran the cams Im talking about, and made like 335rwhp w/o ported heads.

if he goes that route, he might as well go with the FR500 valvetrain kit. These cams are a very good improvement to a 'street' stang...

 

[tama]

some jack-@$$ posted several pics of men taking a #2. Very graphic

refer to a few post earlier by me and addict. Actually those pics scared addict off. Well I had complained to the mods about it and after a while they removed the pics and I also believed they banned that individual.



Anyway, I'm catching on to maybe going with a mild cam duration that may give positive numbers. Sounds like it was to good to be true about the heads. Just looking for something that can convincingly(I know I spelled that wrong) get me to a mid 12 second range N/A.

 

[speedtigger]

B U Y A B L O W E R ! ! ! !

TAKE IT FROM EXPERIENCE!!!!

I have been there and done that.........

Do the blower thing and stay out of the engine. It is the maximum bang for the buck and the mod won't leave you wanting.

 

[tama]

compression on these year engines aren't really ideal for boost. Had 2 friends so far with blown motors on this year engine from running blowers. Each of them throw rods or something after only 8,000 miles of having the blower.

I would need to reforged the internals and have the compression lowered to 8:5 for safe blower use. And that equals more $$$$$ than I have.

man is this mind boggoling.