Gasket matching porting,

[surfsup]

I’m install GT 40 heads with intake ports of 1.28 x 2.10. I bought an air gap manifold and with out doing my home work the intake ports measure 1.05 x 1.85,, looks like it'a about a 1/4 inch of material showing, this seem like an awful lot of material to remove to match the intake ports on the heads, is this ok to do? Or is this really too much material to remove? Plus, how do I know if the gasket is sitting right on the intake before matching the ports in relationship to when I bolt the intake and heads together?

[tmoss]

Go to my website and read up on how to make a template for porting.........it's in the "tech" section.

[surfsup]

Thanks for the info, I looked over the gasket section, the heads I have are used, and I’m guessing that the owner had ported the heads to a 1262 felpro because the gasket seem to fit perfect, no runners are exposed, or very little if any and that could be from not having it sit right on the heads, what I’m concerned about is will I have the gasket positioned correctly on the intake so when I’m done the ports line up, the other thing that bothers me is the amount of material I have to remove from a manifold that’s suppose to used with high performance heads, the ports seem very small. I have been calling edebrock but the line is always busy, plus I have sent several e-mails but have yet to hear anything.

[surfsup]

Well I really examined the ports on the intake and I don’t believe I’ll have any problems, if I can explain this right, the runner deep inside the intake come down on soft curve and then level out flat to meet the port exit, so I’m pretty sure that when I cut away the material to match the gasket all I have to do is blend the runners to match, the more I look at it the more I see it’s not that big a deal, more intimidating then anything I believe, I’ll let you know how things go, just wish I could figure out how to load some picks.

[tmoss]

1262 runners on a GT40 are larger than needed - a case of "bigger is better" mentality. If you port the intake to a 1250 size, it should work well. As far as alignment goes - you use the bolt holes and some spare long bolts to align the template on the intake - you have to carefuly cut out the bolt holes on the template. Always port the intake a little smaqller than the head to allow for some alignment due to tolerances.

[surfsup]

Well not to confuse things here, I ordered the ford gasket kit, what came inside was the printoseal 1250 gasket, when I laid these on my heads they seem to fit pretty good except for some minor material inside the blue sealing area, so what I did was took my razor and trim the material along the inside seal and this seems to fit the ports perfect, if I take my time I’m sure I’ll do ok and if not lesson learned, and we all no you learn from the mistakes. Wish me luck

[tmoss]

Good luck - and..........

the how-to on my website is in the download section instead of the tech section I said above............old timers..........

[surfsup]

Thanks for all the help, one question? The one water jacket port on this manifold is really small compared to the gasket, should I match this if I have enough material or at lease open it up some. or just leave it.Thanks again

[tmoss]

leave it........

[surfsup]

Hey thanks again, well porting is all done, and I think it came out real nice, not as hard as I thought, I didn’t have the right bit to trim the ports with so I went to the home depot, 30.00 for the bit, no way I was spending that kind of money, so what I did was I used my straight edge router bits, and I was amazed at how fast and smooth the router bit cut through the aluminum, it really did a nice job.

[tmoss]

You can get bits foir $15 each here

www.carbidebur.com

[surfsup]

not sure if you would know this, any idea on the On what I’m suppose to tighten these heads bolts to, I can’t see them having the same setting as the cast iron which I believe is 72 ft lb there GT40 heads. thanks again