Head porting

[railroad]

Here are a few poor shots of some smoothing I did on the ports of the Edelbrock E-Streets. I still have the bowls to do and will try to use a better camera.

The blending amounted to cutting out .010 to about .040.
The pics are before and after, by the way.

 

[eafree]

Looking good. Should help it breathe a hole lot better.

Eric

 

[Screaming Metal]

Great work RR, now don't forget to portmatch you intake to your heads! Theres alot of free horses to be made there in the heads..........

 

[railroad]

I definitely will do that. A new magazine just came and the E Street heads out of the box, made 30 hp over the cast iron gt-40 heads.
I did a set of the bowls on one head today. They were not too bad as stock, just a few ridges. I plugged the parts into the Comp cam calculater and the cam they picked
.512 lift on both valves, estimated about 450 hp. It sounded optimistic to me, but I'll go with that for now.

 

[Screaming Metal]

Difference in the porting.....when done correctly......is as big of a difference as night and day.............

Just by smoothing the ports, eliminating rough casting below the intake and exhaust.........and doing portmatching..........I've seen on a street driven car 30 horses or higher, on race cars.....up to 50 horses on up....

Theres alot of my friends in the engine building community in the IHRA and NHRA that'd more or less hang me if I talked too much about it.......but there are alot of good books out there and kits..........and the kits that have the 'port sluges'..........they're shapes that will fit into the ports after porting correctly.............you'll get the most out of these kits, as far as horses go.................if your gonna port your engine..........its best to cc the chambers also..........

Just let me say this................alittle in the right spots will make tons of differences in horses and torque..............but a little in the wrong place will make your power do a severe nosedive...........

For the novice without a flowbench........a little less is better than too much....................just as in carburation, cams, primary tube size, etc.........

 

[Wild Mango]

Unless you have a flowbench and know how to use it modifying heads can be a lottery. However as Screamin' says, smoothing it all out and matching ports always gains. Same with smoothing the runners and opening the bowls.
Other things aren't up to much. In a small block chebby, so called camel hump heads with the "small" 1.9 / 1.5 valves usually go as well as the 2.02 /1.6 because the 1.9 inlet doesn't shroud near as much as the 2.02's. Its only when you start to split the hairs the bigger valves show some useful edge.
Its fun to machine up your own heads, but IMHO value for bucks you can't go past Dart Iron Eagles in the SBC. Spend the time saved somewhere else on the project.

 

[railroad]

Most of the new after market heads do not need major reshaping. They have done all the testing and flowing. Most need just some deep port matching and casting lines smoothed out. Sometimes there are some sharp ridges below the hardened valve seats in the bowl area.
Although not an experienced porter, my younger brother, whose equipment I use, has many years of experience and keeps me in line.
The 30hp was just in the head swap GT-40 cast iron to Edel E-Street. That reflects the improvements in the port and bowl shapes Edelbrock has incorporated over what Ford had out on the GT-40 heads.
I think maybe a conservative 10 hp plus with the cleanup I did. It's not a hi $ motor, just something to be responsive.

 

[Leon renaud]

Would anyone care to offer advice on kits books or anything for a Ford 460 as far as porting or anything else as far as that goes ?My son and I are going to be running a mild 460 next summer at the drags I know enough to "gasket match" the ports but would like to do better than that.
Thanks Leon

 

[donsrods]

Your heads look really good. Have you decided on a cam yet?


Don

 

[railroad]

Don,
I thought I had until I ran the Comp Cams "CamQuest. I was set on the 35-351-8 with .512 lift on both valves and 114 center line, but after running the numbers and looking at the graph, I am leaning toward the 35-421-8 with .513 lift and 110 center line. The last one puts the torque over 400 and peaks at 450 hp. The hp peak is at 6500 rpm which is a little high for the E-Street vavle springs, but I won't be going there much.

What harmonic balancer do you like?

I may call Comp Cams and get some personal advise. I am sure they can enlighten me on anything I am overlooking.

 

[railroad]

Would anyone care to offer advice on kits books or anything for a Ford 460 as far as porting or anything else as far as that goes ?My son and I are going to be running a mild 460 next summer at the drags I know enough to "gasket match" the ports but would like to do better than that.
Thanks Leon

It would be great if you are running aftermarket alum heads, as you would only need a clean up. If you are going to run oem heads, I think you need to look for the D0VE castings. I think those are the right letters. I have seen them very reasonable on Craigs, since the alum ones are taking over.
On your porting, you should find enough information on the internet. Rather than me try to tell you what little I know, research with pictures will be much better. I think the 429 heads have a good basic shape, which means you will not have to try to correct any bad flow paths.

good luck and keep us informed

 

[oldtman]

Ford performance had good info about 20 years ago on 460's . I did one set , about 20 hours with an air die grinder. I have 2 460's back in the rack. no projects right now.to put them in. plus a C 6 with a Fred Hone overdrive kit. = 6 speeds .

 

[Screaming Metal]

It would be great if you are running aftermarket alum heads, as you would only need a clean up. If you are going to run oem heads, I think you need to look for the D0VE castings. I think those are the right letters. I have seen them very reasonable on Craigs, since the alum ones are taking over.
On your porting, you should find enough information on the internet. Rather than me try to tell you what little I know, research with pictures will be much better. I think the 429 heads have a good basic shape, which means you will not have to try to correct any bad flow paths.

good luck and keep us informed

Go to Waldenbooks, or to a hotrod publishing co. and look up "Hotrodding BigBlock Fords', Racing the 460 Ford, Street and strip performance for the Ford 460......

 

[Leon renaud]

went to Waldens and Borders (same chain) and Barnes and Noble and can't find anything on the self about 429/460 385 series Ford engines all the book stores out here have about killed their automotive sections.I was told there that "hotrodding BB Fords is no longer available when I asked so looking other places now.I'm planning on just reworking the stock heads with porting and better springs.Thanks for the tip on Racing the 460 Ford and Street and Strip performance for the 460.This is my first 429/460 so everything is new to me with them

 

[Don'tCallMeJimmie]

Leon, you might have some luck on Amazon.

They have a used book store that has been a gold mine for me in the past. You'll probably find those titles, unused for stupid-cheap prices.

Found my Mom a lost but favorite cookbook recently for five bux, so I know it works!

 

[mikesplumbing]

Here is a link to a popluar big inch ford performance book

[ame=[url]http://www.amazon.com/Musclecar-Hi-Po-Engines-Block-Brooklands/dp/1855201062/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257723069&sr=8-3]Amazon.com[/url]: Musclecar and Hi-Po Engines Ford Big Block (Brooklands Books) (9781855201064): R.M. Clarke: Books[/ame]

It's old but many years a go Smoke Yunik had a book called power secrets that was pretty decent. He was a GM man but the principles are the same, I read it in high school and learned a lot.

[ame=[url]http://www.amazon.com/Smokey-Yunicks-Power-Secrets-Yunick/dp/0931472067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257723217&sr=1-1]Amazon.com[/url]: Smokey Yunick's Power Secrets (0601784000066): S Yunick: Books[/ame]

Check some of the Ford racing forums also

Mike

 

[railroad]

Finally got back to the porting on the E-Street Edelbrock heads.

I worked in the pockets or valve bowls, knocked down some casting marks and hit the ports with a tootsie roll.
I lapped the valves, marked them, washed everything up, anit-seized the guides and put it back together.
1 head down and 1 to go. I got #2 ported and lack lapping and putting back together.
I have attatched some pics of the bowls and ports. Some of the pics show the lapped area on the valve faces
and the valve seats. If you look you can see the gray ring in contrast to the shiny faces.

Don, did you get a change to look at the cam I mentioned. It makes more power and torque than the 533 and 544
lifts on the Cam Quest Calculator. I cannot get it to show the .030 bore so it may not reflect the power for
your 331 C.I.