FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => FE Technical Forum => Topic started by: hbstang on March 26, 2014, 07:17:29 PM
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looking for info on doing mild porting on stock cj heads.doing the bowls,and bump in exh ports?dont want to get into more than that.can it help performance or not worth the effort?local shop wants $500 for bowl work plus $250 for valve job.
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That sounds about right , I was quoted a similar price for bowl blend , and clean up on the exhaust on my edelbrocks and no valve job , they charge 225.00 for that plus valves and guides ..Bud
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Price sounds good to me too. I'd check if they are a reputable shop and have done this porting on fe heads before. Easy to mess things up in there :'(
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thanks for the replys.actually,i was thinking of doing some my self.is there any reference material on the web that would give an idea of what to do?videos etc?
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I did a couple sets myself,few years back. There is some info on the net but limited on fe stuff. I did them according to Doves instruction then took them to a flow bench to tweak them in. You would be surprised at how little grinding changes flow. In my experience little to be gained on the floor, most on the roof and inside runners. Short side radius is very tricky and easy to hurt flow. Hopefully Joe d.craine chimes in, probably one of the best in the country.
Machoneman gave me a link in the leaking valves and compression loss thread.
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There should be oodles on this online .....Have you read this thread yet on FordFE.com? : http://www.network54.com/Forum/74182/thread/1310360618/Head+porting+for+daily+driver
I feel it's very informative and it offers that extra umph of self-confidence to wanna take it on, lol. Of course, an article or a book can't and don't replace experience, but it sure is great having all reference material nowadays at the tip of one's keyboard, lol. (I did many sets of heads for myself and friends, before the internet..... luckily I never "ground" into trouble, pheww, lol, lol).
Hth! Norm
looking for info on doing mild porting on stock cj heads.doing the bowls,and bump in exh ports?dont want to get into more than that.can it help performance or not worth the effort?local shop wants $500 for bowl work plus $250 for valve job.
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You have to be careful with the exhaust bump or you can break in to water passage. If it has a thermactor bump, it's easy to grind out. The bump for the rocker bolt can also be removed for better flow. You'll often break into the threaded area, but it's not hard to trim/grind the bolt/stud to length so it is flush with the roof wall, then seal the bolt/stud in the hole.
Careful streamlining of the valve guide helps and is fairly straight forward. Just leave enough for adequate support of the guide, especially if it's a street engine.
But in my opinion, anything beyond a careful and GENTLE smoothing of bowl edges should be left to experienced port guys with flow benches. If you try and remove material beyond breaking and rolling edges from the machine work, you'll likely hurt flow rather than help it. Every head design and engine is different, so generic porting articles often do more harm than good. Just a simple rolling of sharp bowl edges will help though,. As mentioned, the short side radius is very tricky and should be treated with kid gloves unless you have extensive experience or a guiding hand by somebody who is.
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I did a lot of reading on porting a few years back. David Vizard has several informative books on the subject. I was going to port a set of C4 heads myself. But without a flow bench to gauge the progress of my work, I changed my mind. I'll do the bowl and chamber clean-up and decided to let the pros with flow benches take care of the big metal removal.
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To add to what everyone else has said I found the easiest gains to be had on Fe heads is the transition area from the port into bowl and working the valve guide boss some... And blending the valve job into the bowl and chamber... This takes a careful hand though... As has been stated one oops with the die grinder will mean another round trip to the machine shop to have the valve seat touched up... There's also plenty of air flow to be had with a good competition valve job... Hope this helps some..
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Go on youtube and put in headbytes porting then find the fe heads. If you look at all his fe stuff its about the best I have seen.