If intake manifold ports are larger than the head ports, how do you know what to remove? The block could have been milled or the heads.
Is this something that can be done with a Dremel and a few carbide tips or is it better left to the pros??
If intake manifold ports are larger than the head ports, how do you know what to remove? The block could have been milled or the heads.
Once you start talking about "left to the pros" you're talking a $500 labor bill on a set of heads that weren't any good to start with............plus parts.
WRONGO!!!
I went low 11's with '69 351W heads N/A on a 289 in a 3000# car which, according to Moroso's slide rule, figures to about 400 RWHP to do that.
Afterglow, if you're on the east coast and don't want to buy a Makita elec. die grinder and a sewing machine pedal to vary the speed and all the bits and rolls you'll need to do the project, check with Les Schmader www.lesport.8m.com as Les can hot tank, pocket port & bowl blend both intake and exhaust, port exhaust runner mild shape & polish for $150/pair.
Add gasket match the intake runners and you're at $250/pair.
And for the full on job where he full ports the intake and exhaust, it's $350 for the pair, but he needs the specific application. Tell him what you're going to do and he'll tailor a package to your specific needs.
He also stocks AFR heads and has a Superflow bench. Les won't sell you more than you need. That being said, I've never used Les nor spoke to the man, he doesn't even know who I am, but I've never heard anything bad about his work and many, many praises. I plan on sending him a set of FE heads to port one of these days. You can't beat his prices.
It's all stuff you can do yourself, but if you're only doing it once, I don't think it's worth going out and getting all the stuff unless you just like doing stuff yourself.
The $500 job is for a full on competition port job. Just because you've never heard of him doesn't mean he isn't any good.
He's been doing port work for years. I never heard of Joe Sherman until he won the 1st Engine Masters, but you probably had since he's local to your area.
Aluminum heads are for fluff and show to brag to your buddies on cruise night, you don't need aluminum heads to make 400 ponies to cruise with.
I think MBA stands for Master B___S___ Artist.
Your price may be right for SoCal, but it ain't the same everywhere else in the country. Everyone that knows anything knows that a bowl blend and pocket porting will get more out of your head than a port job, I even got that from Joe Sherman.
That's true, and I'm not tossing your guy under the bus. But you aren't getting a porting job for $150 either. That costs either $350 or $500 depending on what we decide a port job is.
Actually, even though Joe is right down the street from where I currently live, I learned about him the same way as you did - magazines. I've never met the guy.
One could make an argument you don't need 400hp to cruise.
OP has a perfectly decent running engine. Opening it up is gonna cost OP $100 in gaskets and a $350 port job. But that's not all he's gonna find. He'll need to do a valve job (another $250 for both heads) plus whatever parts he needs (valves, seats, ect). So now OP is $400 away from a new set of GT-40x heads which are going to outperform anything short of the $500 port job, assuming he doesn't need to install guides or seats or valves...........see where I'm going? Those cast iron heads still won't ever be as good as the AFR's or the GT40s untouched unless you really get serious and pay the big money to have them ported.
Why are you making a personal attack on me?
I only recently moved here from a small farming town North of Bakersfield. Quality machine work isn't cheap anywhere.
Just because you CAN spend money on your stock cast iron heads and make them work doesn't mean you SHOULD do it. It's more cost efficent for OP to buy a set of heads than to rework what he has IMO.
one thing that always gets me when people talk about spending big bucks on aftermarket heads they always say stuff like and with the valve job, guides, etc. you are only X dollars away from a good set of aftermarket heads, when eventually those aftermarket heads are going to need all that stuff too. so what do you do when it's time for those aftermarket heads to have a valve job, etc.? buy another set of aftermarket heads?
not knocking aftermarket heads, i'd love to have a set of AFR competition port 165's for the long rod, roller block 351w i plan on building before long but they are around 1800 bucks and i can redo the set of D0OE 351 heads i already have for about 1/3 of that and still have very good performing heads, albeit not as good as the AFR's but still very nice flowing heads.
one thing that always gets me when people talk about spending big bucks on aftermarket heads they always say stuff like and with the valve job, guides, etc. you are only X dollars away from a good set of aftermarket heads, when eventually those aftermarket heads are going to need all that stuff too. so what do you do when it's time for those aftermarket heads to have a valve job, etc.? buy another set of aftermarket heads?.
(washmo66 is taking about putting his low 11 second 347 into a '65 4 door Comet, talk about sleeper. ).