Where exactly in the head is material removed from in a p&p? Is it around the valve, in the intake, or where? I am just kind of curious as to how it actually works. And no if you tell me I am not going to go get my dremmell and start grinding away.

 

I have ported some heads off of a mustang before and had squite a bit of success with it. Ususally there are big restrictions from casting flaws. The short side radius is a very important area that need a gentle transition(dont remove large amounts of material). The bowl area is another area of concentration where smoothing out the transitions are helpful. Sometimes the intake mismatches witht he intake port and could use some grining. A good way to gauge your success is to use your finger and feel the transitions. Sometimes shining a light on the walls will help. Do not smooth the intake ports as they will need some turbulelence to keep the air/fuel ratio atomized. Remember to remove a small amount of material as possible and try to keep the port runner volume low. This way you can maintain good air velocity and keep a good low end power fromt he motor.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I have three questions for about what you said. First what is the short side radius? Is the bowl area where the valves come through at? What is a/ the port runner?

Thanks again.

 

Your best bet is to go to Standard Abrasives website. They give a very good port and polish 101 class with good pictures to help. Let me do soem research and see if I can find it for you. Pictures are worth a thousand words. If you weren't so far away Id show you exactly what needs to be done so you could do it yourself safely and save quite a few bucks to boot.

 

Here you go:

SA head porting website

 

That helped 100%. I just grazed it but I'll read it all later. Thanks for the help.

 

A couple things to keep in mind:

If you polish the chamber it will LOWER the compression.

Be CAREFUL around the valve seats, unless you are planning on a vlave job anyway.

There are water jackets behind the port walls if you go too thin.

The port floor shouldn't need to be touched, the roof is much more important.

You can shine the exhaust port to a shine, keep the intake a bit rough.