360 engine build opinions - first engine build

I think this will give a pretty good explanation of what I'm trying to get at. I quote this from a thread on the allpar.com forum entitled "dana's edging", and this is a post by dana44 talking about his theory on edging and other things like singh grooves, arguing with another member (mpgmike). He is talking about engines in general also, not just old Mopar V-8's.

"Mike, when we talked, I thought I explained that you were going to the trouble to port a set of heads to improve the flow from carb/TB to the combustion chamber, and by putting grooves inside the combustion chamber, you were upsetting a flow balance of making things as smooth and streamlined as possible, which is the goal of porting a head. I also talked about the carbide burr cutter texture which makes little cups about the size of a grain of rice which takes the fuel and air and causes a ripple which takes and keeps the fuel/air suspended at low and medium rpm levels, upper rpm levels don't matter because velocity itself takes care of suspension and we agreed on that. We talked about the fact I thought the grooves took away from the flow because it causes a hard chatter and actually catches the fuel and forces it to attach to the lynz grooves cut into the head port itself, I knew there were some things that weren't right so I guess I am saying, yes, there is a problem.

With that said, if you recall the original engine you did this on, a slant 6, and later a motor home V8, they were both carbureted engines and once the lynz were cut at the base of the carburetor underneath, it then had to travel roughly 7-9 inches through the intake before it came to the back side of the intake valve and into the head. Plenty of time for the fuel to stabilize within the air and be super atomized. With fuel injection, literally, the fuel is being shot into a torment of the intake port and it is literally sticking to the lynz noted by the yellow tinge of the intake runner where the injector is, not normal color as a regular head, the black garbage is from a bad port that does not flow properly and the fuel is puddling and getting cooked or coked on the dead flow spots of the stock ports. It is atomizing, but it is atomizing not because it is in a slip stream, it is atomizing because of the ripples of the wall, which saves you a whole lot of money and time in doing lynz that isn't doing any better than a good port job with the proper carbide burr surface. You would actually get the same results if you used an 60grit sanding disk believe it or not. Something that may help, believe it or not, is if the ports are prepared properly, but the intake itself has the lynz given the air itself needs to be turbulent to catch the fuel and it would be patternized to flow smoother once the fuel is injected into it. In other words, the lynz are too late for them to properly work in my estimation, which is why you aren't building 90mpg 2.2/2.5 engines out there. If the lynz did work that way, that would be the standard and it isn't, is it?

I have no qualms of you edging combustion chambers, but the singh grooves are messing up the flow potential of being able to burn a lower octane fuel with edging and still produce more power than before with even lower (slightly) compression, and from every test I saw and have read, singh grooves do nothing whatsoever to increase horsepower or torque, they in many cases dropped slightly or nothing at all. The only reason I can see that the cylinder temperature is reduced is because the flame is actually being blown out or pushed away from the opposite side of the cylinder and thus not burning as hot. Do it with the 2.2 with the 2.5 pistons on an 89 and above common block (I may have this wrong....there is a combination of the common 2.2/2.5 where you can get a 2.2 with 12:1 compression by the combination of piston/rod/newer block or something, good deal), but the grooves are forcing a bad woosh that is trying to be alleviated through the edging. Anyway, edge a head properly with the high compression and you will have great mileage, a couple mpg to 5mpg or more better than a stock engine and an additional 35hp on a stock everything else, no problem, might be more, haven't been able to do it myself, might get the time after this deployment in the spring. The goal is to have a higher compression engine that runs on the cheapest fuel, retains at least or better gas mileage and has better performance and even sounds better than stock.

In other words, each and every little thing, porting, edging, singh grooves and lynz are all good things by themselves, but porting and edging are the same and the lynz and singh grooves take away from what porting and edging does, namely improving the flow from point A (intake to behind the intake valve) to point B (inside the combustion chamber, so think of edging as combustion chamber porting) then out the exhaust. Shoving air through a ridged tube and then put it into a combustion chamber that has been hacked up, is that good flow conditions, flame travelling all over the place without a controlled pattern (I think not).

Since I did not nor do I intend to patent my technology, you can still use it, can't stop you from doing it, but too many combinations are ruining the soup. Singh grooves, blowing out the flame, prevents it from allowing the flame to travel all the way across the piston and cylinder head. If I wanted an engine with a burn pattern on the piston that is only 3 inches on a 4 inch piston, I would get a 3 inch bore block. In other words, limiting the flame travel from making it all the way across the piston is a waste of bore, (and the bragging that the exhaust gasses are cooler, no kidding, blowing out a flame partway will do that, kind of like an oversized dome piston with the sparkplug not being able to reach the other side because it is too tall thus producing less power because only 20percent of the piston area is burning) grooves do that by the wooshes whent he piston makes TDC and forces everything out of the quench area. The only thing really saving it and actually making power is the edging, which is allowing the exploded gas wedge into the quench area (small after edging thank god) and put force all the way against the piston top, causing, you guessed it, more hp and torque naturally. Why do you think the guy that used to run 30psi gets the same results with 20psi now? Flow potential, not lynz or grooves, but I already gave that promise. It also now makes a smaller engine sound like a larger enigne because on a head that hasn't been edged, about 70percent of the piston is being exploded on, after edging, the potential is there for 90-97percent, meaning there is a gain in the explosion/combustion, thus a larger piston utilized. Get it?

Sorry about it being so long, others may enjoy, hope you learn from it or will at least try a head without lynz or grooves first, then compare it afterwards with them (hard to do it the other way around). I have a couple guys that have asked me to port their heads after my return in the spring, might even retire and do it professionally. I know I have a couple motorcycle shops asking me to work for them, engines only, might just do it. Already got the tools.

I see it as taking a pretty well ported head and then taking a rasp to the ports and a hatchet to the combustion chambers. Kind of defeated all that good work."

Things like "powre lynz" that dana44 is referring to are grooves cut into the intake ports to supposedly help keep fuel suspended.