mopowers
Well-Known Member
I believe your #1 circle in the photo above may be the valve cover bolt boss? No problem if you break through, but fyi none-the-less.
X-Head Porting....
- Thread starter DentalDart
- Start date
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Yes I think you are correct.
I rewatched the uncle Tony garage porting video and the 318 will run videos on porting. Im trying to understand the different areas of the head as I go. To know where I can remove more and where I need to remove less. It'd be nice to cut one of these in half
mopowers
Well-Known Member
You have two, right? LOL
I have 2 complete sets, so a total of 4 heads to practice on lol.
I dont have a tool that would cut them though. Well maybe my 4in grinding wheel...
From the Chrysler Racing manuals, the best thing you can do is smooth the transition in the bowl under the valve and match and concentrate on the intake port divider wall. I also match the roof on the intake and exhaust port. Then I match the sides on the exhaust ports. I purposely do not touch the floor of either port. I also cc all the chambers and equalize them to within .2 cc of each other. I do not have a flow bench, I am not a head porter, so that is as far as I will go. I would also start with stones as they will remove less material until you get comfortable. Getting a variable speed control for your grinder is also a big help.
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512Stroker
We are all here because we are not all there.
Excuse me I thought you had them off already.
If it's running OK know dont mess with it.
Porting your X heads or swapping them for some chinese aluminum heads will gain you nothing without making alot other expensive $ changes.
You have a cool car enjoy what you have and dont fix it if its not broke.
Some day when your practice is fully developed you can have a collection of Mopars to work on.
Dartsun
Mopar Dude
I think Doc is just a busy body looking for something to mess with. Nothing wrong with that, good luck on your porting.
512Stroker
We are all here because we are not all there.
It's in his blood to drill and grind on things.
Number one don’t be afraid to try
Number to don’t be afraid to mess up as we all have.
Here’s a flowbench forum that I have been on for years. I don’t visit like I used to be if you join and look around there is a members project area. Of all things a member was porting a set of Mopar small block heads. If it’s still there you will get some pointers from it.
PTS Homepage
Number to don’t be afraid to mess up as we all have.
Here’s a flowbench forum that I have been on for years. I don’t visit like I used to be if you join and look around there is a members project area. Of all things a member was porting a set of Mopar small block heads. If it’s still there you will get some pointers from it.
PTS Homepage
Yes you caught me! Im still young, dumb and full of energy... lol.
Ok I got a little bit done... how do they look? 
.....
Just kidding these aren't mine. But they are pretty..
..... Just kidding these aren't mine. But they are pretty..
Thanks! Also wasn't trying to offend when saying the xheads were on the car. These are my practice heads before pulling the xheads. Maybe ill get lucky and suck at porting/cleaning up the heads to where I won't want to yank my xheads off lol.
Yeah I've been thinking of the problems I may end up with if I go to aluminum cnc heads... would need other expensive parts to I go along with the heads...
Phreakish
Well-Known Member
Heat and steel wool can make red rust turn blue/black. Red rust isn't much of a problem unless the parts get repeatedly exposed to moisture (hydrating red rust makes it increase in volume and flake off, eventually 'eating' the metal apart).
I run parts in the dishwasher (no soap! it's caustic and will cause pitting) and ensure the temp of the water and dry cycle is maxxed. Run a 'short wash' (longer wash cycles and longer dry cycles bring back the risk of additional red rust) and keep checking during the dry cycle - if you start to see reddish colors or red pimples, time to pull the parts. It doesn't work so well if there's already oil on the red rust though, so de-grease prior to the wash cycle.
Once pulled from the washer, rub with some steel wool (#00 or #000 - #0000 is too fine for my liking, just shreds on coarse parts) and buff up any areas that are crusty, and otherwise leave the rest alone. Then shower it with some WD40 to prevent further red rust. The WD will also help catch some of the iron dust and not make *quite* as big of a mess.
Obviously married men aren't allowed to try this process.
While grinding (or doing anything with compressed air), use a dust mask or respirator. That metal dust gets nasty in your nose...
Since you're not looking to alter the characteristics of the heads, just stick to your cleanup goals and go for it. Burrs might be a little much if all you want to do is clean up and remove casting flaws though. Burrs will 'bite' metal more and can be tougher to control and since they can leave a rather rough surface it gets tough to see where you've 'cleaned' and where you've actually removed a ton of metal. For your project, I'd be using coarse sanding rolls (36-60 grit).. but that's just me.
Undoubtedly you've read the other threads on porting and know that the real differences for modest amounts of work comes from the roof and the sort side. Without a bench, I'd stay away from the short side. The pushrod pinch isn't worth much until you've done a lot of other port work. But if I were you and wanted to feel like you actually 'ported' rather than 'cleaned' the ports - I'd raise the roof a bit and follow some of the info on this and other sites. Go for the low hanging fruit knowing that you won't be able to deliberately fine-tune things like the common wall and short side without a bench. But you can port-match, de-hump, smooth out, raise the roof, blend the bowl and clearance the guide bosses and know you're not likely to be going backwards at all. Just keep your tools away from the floor of the short side - it's ok to buff it a bit though, but it's tough to reach anyway so leaving it as-is other than slight blend of the bowl is just fine.
Also, if I were you, I'd treat these heads as if you're going to rebuild them and put them onto your engine and then do exactly that. If you port the heads which are currently on your engine, they're going to need rebuilt and valve-jobbed anyway (hard to do much grinding without at least nicking the seats, even accidentally!).
Might as well make these heads work for you - and then you can keep your 'virgin' ones to go back to if you don't like the results of home-porting.
Grinding iron takes a while, so you'll have plenty of time to hunt for super cheap deals on valves, springs, retainers and keepers - maybe even work with a local shop who might cut you a deal to install some sleeve guides, valve job and some help on final assembly.
I run parts in the dishwasher (no soap! it's caustic and will cause pitting) and ensure the temp of the water and dry cycle is maxxed. Run a 'short wash' (longer wash cycles and longer dry cycles bring back the risk of additional red rust) and keep checking during the dry cycle - if you start to see reddish colors or red pimples, time to pull the parts. It doesn't work so well if there's already oil on the red rust though, so de-grease prior to the wash cycle.
Once pulled from the washer, rub with some steel wool (#00 or #000 - #0000 is too fine for my liking, just shreds on coarse parts) and buff up any areas that are crusty, and otherwise leave the rest alone. Then shower it with some WD40 to prevent further red rust. The WD will also help catch some of the iron dust and not make *quite* as big of a mess.
Obviously married men aren't allowed to try this process.
While grinding (or doing anything with compressed air), use a dust mask or respirator. That metal dust gets nasty in your nose...
Since you're not looking to alter the characteristics of the heads, just stick to your cleanup goals and go for it. Burrs might be a little much if all you want to do is clean up and remove casting flaws though. Burrs will 'bite' metal more and can be tougher to control and since they can leave a rather rough surface it gets tough to see where you've 'cleaned' and where you've actually removed a ton of metal. For your project, I'd be using coarse sanding rolls (36-60 grit).. but that's just me.
Undoubtedly you've read the other threads on porting and know that the real differences for modest amounts of work comes from the roof and the sort side. Without a bench, I'd stay away from the short side. The pushrod pinch isn't worth much until you've done a lot of other port work. But if I were you and wanted to feel like you actually 'ported' rather than 'cleaned' the ports - I'd raise the roof a bit and follow some of the info on this and other sites. Go for the low hanging fruit knowing that you won't be able to deliberately fine-tune things like the common wall and short side without a bench. But you can port-match, de-hump, smooth out, raise the roof, blend the bowl and clearance the guide bosses and know you're not likely to be going backwards at all. Just keep your tools away from the floor of the short side - it's ok to buff it a bit though, but it's tough to reach anyway so leaving it as-is other than slight blend of the bowl is just fine.
Also, if I were you, I'd treat these heads as if you're going to rebuild them and put them onto your engine and then do exactly that. If you port the heads which are currently on your engine, they're going to need rebuilt and valve-jobbed anyway (hard to do much grinding without at least nicking the seats, even accidentally!).
Might as well make these heads work for you - and then you can keep your 'virgin' ones to go back to if you don't like the results of home-porting.
Grinding iron takes a while, so you'll have plenty of time to hunt for super cheap deals on valves, springs, retainers and keepers - maybe even work with a local shop who might cut you a deal to install some sleeve guides, valve job and some help on final assembly.
Phreakish
Well-Known Member
The car runs great right now, anything else you do is going to impair drivability to an extent. Higher flowing heads will help your top end, but hurt the low end. Based on where you've been liking your shift points I doubt you'd really enjoy having an engine with high-flowing heads.
The alternative is more cubic inches under those heads - which will bring more torque into the low end while taking advantage of the higher flowing heads. Then you're also likely looking at changing the cam to make it a better fit for more cubes, and more cubes means more exhaust gas which means headers, new exhaust, etc.
You've got some of the best factory heads on a stout short block that runs very close to how you want it to. Unless the valve guides are leaking oil, I'd cast another vote to leave them alone. I'd still port and rebuild the other x-heads you have so that when your guides DO start to leak or you have other issues, you'll have replacement heads you can swap right on and keep right on driving.
This makes to much sense... I dont like it...
I actually asked Tony today about to much air flow for my cam. Lol. Of course I also asked 50 other questions as well.
I did a thing... I think I need to use more pressure on the next port... when doing to light if pressure it likes to jump a little more and occasionally catch and jerk and jump really hard especially when trying to get into these little spots where the flathead is pointing...
MOPAROFFICIAL
Oogliboogli
Let us know when you're done.
Aim for bowl shape, venturi far side slightly
Round promotes an even signal. Think 'even distance and shape'
That was like an hour of "work" and it looks horrible lol
yellow rose
Overnight Sensation
You need to be able to control cutter speed. You just can’t run them wide open all the time. I can use either but I prefer an air grinder.
It looks like your carbides have a pretty big diameter . When the ports are as small as what you are doing, and you need all the area you can get, I don’t use anything bigger than 1/2 inch and 3/8 most of the time.
A big corner radius in a perfect world is best. That head ain’t near perfect nor can it be made perfect. So corner radius need to be 1/2 or smaller. I’ve done some at 1/4 inch but that was a giant PITA for little return.
Look at the W2 port. It is to small for anything 340 inches and smaller over about 8000 RPM and as the displacement goes up the RPM at which the head is the limit goes down.
If you want to make the W2 enough cross section for stuff like that the option is to make them square. Another giant PITA.
You need to learn the relationship between cross section, displacement, RPM, Rod to stroke ratio (it matters), camshaft LSA, induction, exhaust, chassis, gearing and such.
Yea I was thinking a smaller tree shaped burr might be good, maybe Ill go get one.
I have an pneumatic grinder as well. Maybe ill try that one out, I just don't have a big air tank.
Phreakish
Well-Known Member
Get some stones and sanding rolls. Burrs are great for removing big chunks, but lack finesse until you get good with them. Stones and paper are easier to control and also blend better because of the built in flexibility. Stones typically won't load up with steel like they do with AL. You're going to want them anyway to finish the ports, might as well get some on hand and see how they compare. You might wind up saving some time or frustration.
Long tapered paper rolls are available and can work great around the guide bosses.
I have some stones, they don't have a long shank though... maybe ill need a dremel to use them better.
I have a ton of good quality rolls I could give you a good deal on some??
I tried the "shank extension" but the ones I've seen/bought/used have set screws in them. So its impossible to get the burr centered in the extension. It ends up "offset" in the extension.
Hope that makes sense?
I tried the "shank extension" but the ones I've seen/bought/used have set screws in them. So its impossible to get the burr centered in the extension. It ends up "offset" in the extension.
Hope that makes sense?
Phreakish
Well-Known Member
Set screws would suck. I've seen collet style, but I don't recall where or what they cost. Haven't ever bought or used one either, so no idea if they center well enough. But I know they exist, LOL.
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