porting stock heads

[89lxinwky]

I'm swapping intakes right now so I was thinking about doing something with the stock '89 heads while I'm at it. Until I can afford to get some better heads, I was wanting to try and get the most flow I can out of the stock ones. I'll probably try another cam too. Anybody got any flow or hp increase #'s by porting the stock heads and is it worth it? If I could spend a couple hundred on these and get them flowing maybe as good as GT-40's it might be worth it, right?
Thanks

[fiveohpatrol]

if you do it yourself then it is well worth it. But if you pay someone to port them then it will be a waste of money.

There has been a few posts about this lately. Do a search on it and see what other information has been said in other threads. You might find something useful.

good luck,
-Drew

[Old Guy with 87 GT]

just did some port work on my stock ones .......seems like porting the stock ones doesn't get as good a flow #s as the gt40ps.....but in comparison to 1/4 mile times it seems alot more cost effective if you consider the price of gt40ps and the headers you have to buy to run them .........you can port,mill and rebuild the stock one's for a couple of hundred dollars and still use regular headers (better if you plan on new heads in the future)

i didn't port mine drasticly ,if you grind off the themactor bumps and smooth out the bottom of the exaust ports, just doing that is suposed to make a big differents.......i did that polished the intake and ex ports,milled off .020 ,replaced the springs and got a complete valve job all for about 400$ ......i paid a shop to do all the work ......didn't even have to clean um off ......still not done putting it back together.....i'll let you know how it runs

i considered getting the gt40ps , my reasoning for using the stock ones was for 400$ i could get the stock ones done, compared to 600$ for gt40ps and 175$ for headers .......from what i've seen numbers wise there wasn't enough of an increase in track times to justify the extra 1-2 tenths i'd get with the gt40ps ....plus i can still use the headers i allready have and if i get better aluminum heads in the futer i'm not stuck with the gt40 headers........if you can get a set of gt40ps used then it might be worth it ,other wise you can mill the old ones and port them and it'll make a big difference

[lx mike]

my buddy has 87 gt with ported e-7's explorer intake and 1.7 rocker arms, 3.73's gears and he is running 8.0's in the the eighth mile at 84 mph. stock he was running 9.0's in the 1/8 on street tires, the 8.0's are on 26-10-15 et drags. if you can port them yourself then it's worth it.

[gtsr515]

Your question is a carbon copy of hundreds before you, to spend a "couple hundred" on porting stock E7TE heads is a total waste, because in the end they will NEVER get you to be as fast as you want, that "couple hundred would be much better spent on premium valvetrain on a set of aftermarket heads.

[USMC302]

In my opinion, leave the heads on the block until you save that couple hundred into $1k and buy some quality heads. The seal from the heads to the block on a engine that hasn't been taken off before is a good thing, you really complicate matters when you start going that deep. Either way, you will only be able to port them to a certain extent, unless you pay for them to be exrude honed, don't pay at all. I say save that money, you'll be glad you did when you get the new heads. Porting your current heads without replacing the springs and a good valve job won't do much anyway, new heads would have all of that.