polishing

[drtbiker]

Hey guys,
I have a question about polishing the intake runners and heads..... i am going to port them but i was wondering what grit to clean them up with... i heard a lot of differnt things so please share your opinions

thanks
raini

[drtbiker]

anyone???? 88workcar?....

[88workcar]

for the bottom use a flapper wheel, or a wire wheel on a pencil grinder. For the top, Did you cut the bread box open? Don't worry with POLISH just smooth it out.

[drtbiker]

cool, na i got a new intake finally kinda like the performer from edelbrock you can take off the plenum cover it is pretty nice

[MEDIK418]

No smoother than a 60 grit for the intake. The exhaust ports can stand as much shine as you can get. Most port/polish kits come with 120 grit for these.

[jim_howard_pdx]

Sorry to disagree with everyone on this post....

I do not do this to be a pain in the a s s.

If you want maximum horsepower and torque, you need equal power produced on each cylinder, or at least as even as you can make it.

FORD EFI s u c k s. Sorry but it is true. In fact ford small block head configurations are back a s s w a r d to the way they should be designed.

Ford uses stupid cylinder head configuations that chevy and chrysler have figured out back in the 1950's. If you use an x intake configuration you get more even power produced at each cylinder and that builds the best power.

On Fords, we suffer in that the corners are way longer runs than the center 4 cylinders. Now on that FORD EFI intake, you have air that almost reaches the speed of sound trying to make bends, cuts, and dodges to reach all 8 runners. That is why cylinder one rarely gets enough air at high rpm. So that cylinder runs rich. Too much fuel, not enough air.

To fix this, there is nothing more effective than to "extrude hone" both the upper and lower intakes. Have them port these to the maximum they can go.

The Edelbrock Victor and the Trick Flow intakes do a much better job of feeding that number one cylinder with air, and in setting your torque curve higher to build more horsepower at upper rpms.

All the ford and cobra intakes are tuned WAY LOW for maximum power production. But hese pieces will be greatly improved by extrude honing as well.

Extrude honing is like a super polish job. It takes a goopy mess of carbide clumps and drags them through the ports. This scrapes them from the inside out, and smooths the contours that provides for optimum air flow at high rpm.

Extrude honing does a better job than hand porting or hand porting plus cnc work.

When running a carb, I like to port the unit, then shot peen the unit to establish the "casting" finish that keeps fuel from "sheeting" on the metal. At high rpms these sheets break free and cause all kinds of bad rich/lean cylinder problems that rob the engine of torque.

Hope my long explanation makes sense. Extrude honing works for two reasons. One, it cuts or hones in a way that mimmicks how the air needs to flow as it approaches the speed of sound. Second, it ports smoothly and effectively areas that hand porting and cnc do a poor job cutting.

Extrude hone, and keep the surface brightly POLISHED! You will be very pleased with the results.

[Dark_5.0]

Extrude honing cost a grip of cash and hand porting doesnt. With his set-up his intake would work just fine un-touched.

[89GroceryGetter]

With the rest of that package you may want to leave that intake alone for now. Good luck either way you decide.

[drtbiker]

89 grocerygeter why?????
i am a kid and my dad has been polishing all of his life and i am sure he can give me a hand. I dont have the cash to extrude hone (sp) everything. I like to work on my car besides....

[MEDIK418]

Jim. . .again, Read the question! Nobody asked if extrude honing is more effective than polishing ports! Which by the way costs an arm and part of one leg vs. a 30 dollar polishing kit and some time. He asked what grit to use. Nowhere in there was a request to see how many times he could prompt someone to use the words "I, me, my, and mine"

[88workcar]

drtbiker, I was a grocerygetters house went I posted that. When you asked about porting, I didn't thing you had a good intake, I thought that we were speaking of the stock one. I would now say only do the lower, and just clean the minor imperfections. Well if that is all you do, go ahead and do the top also. It's just that with the Edelbroc you don't need to port it for it to work well. And open the bottom of the runners to just a slightly smaller opening than the heads. Also when you install it, use a flashlight to look down the ports to properly aline the intake to the heads. You can do a preliminary to realy see where to cut the lower runnners.

[srv1]

Jim you keep forgetting one thing when you tell us your "SPEED SECRETS", and i have a SECRET for you!! you ready? the secret is..... MONEY!

we definetly appreciate your wisdom, but most of your secrets arent practicle(money) to 90% of the members here. But keep the secrets coming, cause that is very knowledgeable info that you have.

Extrude hone....HA! dont you think we all would have done that instead of sitting countless hours at a bench grinding away if it was affordable? you can get great results by home porting it yourself.

[drtbiker]

what about with the heads.... with polishing 88work car? There are many imperfections on the inside of the intake that is why i wanted to do that. It is very ruff in some spots

[drtbiker]

and here is another

[2FastLX]

If it were me I would get some flap wheels, cartridge rolls, and carbide burrs and go to town on that thing. But that's just me. I would at least smooth that ledge out (see pic)

[drtbiker]

that is what i figured as well....

[88workcar]

Yes the heads can be done as well. If you want to pull them. This will take more time and depending on how far you want to go, can cost well over $1000.00. But a simple gasket match and clean up will improve power. And you can do that yourself. Also see if the headers are smaller than the Exhast ports of the heads. They can usually be opened some also.

[drtbiker]

cool.... I was looking at a porting site and they said to use the following felpro gaskets intake =felpro 1262 and for the exaust 1415. Is this right? It is now starting to snow here so i think the fun is going to begin soon.

thanks

[IBStanged87]

drtbiker what was the name of the porting site?

[jim_howard_pdx]

I do all my own head porting. I also port all my own carburated intakes. I extrude hone the EFI intakes because you cannot beat the smooth airflow this process produces. I totally agree with everyone that Extrude Hone charges a fortune for their work, but look at the world speed records they own with this process. It is not just a few cars. It is in the 100's of cars now.

I have my trick flows ported to the 1262 felpro gasket, and my only caution for you is that your B cam is TOO SMALL to take advantage of these huge ports. The 1262 gasket is only a 1/4 inch shorter and wider than the 428 cobra jet heads that made over 600 hp on my engine.

If you port them this far, go up to the E cam or even the X cam.

I like guys who port themselves. I love doing it. Pull all the valves. When you do, take a small fine file and remove the grove along the valve keeper ridge of your valves, then they will drop right through the guides. Clean the port bowl of all the gubbers, but do not go hog wild here. Just a basic clean up.

Like others have said, you only need to blend the port match back about 1/2 inch into the port. I like to widen the port floor to about 80% the valve diameter, but you run the risk of hitting a water jacket and then you have an expensive paperweight.

So you can go about 75% without a problem just go slow and error on the side of safety. The top side OR "port roof" is where you need things really smooth and really well blended. Put all your time here and you will reap some big dividends.

I forgot which heads you are running. If they are Ford iron heads you need to completely remove the air injection bump. Port the exhaust the same as the intake with the emphasis on the port roof. Make sure you size up your header to the gasket, because if you go too wide and tall you might compromise the header seal and this will cost you big time. BIG TIME.

If you have aftermarket heads they probably have decent runners on the exhaust side, but clean them up anyway, and make sure all the gubbers are removed from the port bowl. I like to use the flapper rolls to highly polish the exhaust port after I have everything roughed out. But if you run in a stock class, this type of exhaust porting will put you in a modified class.

So take your ported head to a shop and have it shot peened to put a cast finish back on the ports. Tech may still complain and you may end up in a modified class anyway if they know their heads....

Hope this helps and I am really glad you want to do this yourself. I ported my first heads at 16, but I had a great teacher who did world class head porting work. He taught me that big is not necessarily better.

Enlarged and smooth exhaust ports, and smooth intake runs are what works best on low rpm street and bracket engines.

Only high high rpm engines take major reworking in order to keep the air and fuel suspended as they navigate at extreme velocity past port floors, bowls, valves and valve guides, and the like. On an 8,000 rpm engine the air and fuel will separate as they make sharp bends or hit port sides etc. This can cause really disastrous engine problems.

Feel free to email me at jim_howard_pdx@yahoo.com if you have any questions. Porting is fun, it is highly effective, and it is ADDICTIVE.

Good luck and don't hesitate to email me with ANY questions.