Yeah...........my forearms are starting to look like "Popeye the sailor man"........ btw, i like how Scott placed the old valves back into the head when polishing the combustion chamber.......helps to protect the valve seats.....
Driver's side head is done, no wonder the shops would charge so much to port and polish.........took a few cigars and maybe one or two beers!!! On to the passenger side head tomorrow.........
Here's a couple of pics of the finished driver's side head......... I started on the passenger side head with one of the intake ports, look at the difference between the stock port and the matched one.........
I did this same thing last summer and the results on the butt dyno were substantial. Those springs from ta will allow you to make power much higher than you most likely were before. I believe mine were the original springs that I replaced as my car would fall on its face at like 4200rpm. Now she pulls to 5500+ no problem and there is definitely more power due to the head porting. Are you gasket matching the intake as well? I bet you will be pleasantly surprised with the results you gain. Should be a whole new driving experience, mine was!
Thanks Ceasar, they're not as nice looking as Scott Kerns pics, for my first time i'm pretty happy with them. Duke, good to hear about your results. Yes, i am matching the intake as well. It's a TA, and it's ports are already the size of the gasket opening, i'll just need to do a little cleanup along the casting lines, but it's aluminum so that will be like warm butter compared to the heads.
My son and I finished the passenger side head this weekend.......... We're taking them to the machinist this evening for milling...........
Looking good! im getting ready to do the same to my heads, what kit are you using to port them? i need to purchase some carbide burrs and want to know which ones i should get.
Nice looking Buick you have there........ We used a cylinder burr and a flame tip burr, both six inch. And a mandrel with four sanding rolls. Purchased them all from TA. Got about 20 hours into each head, was using an electric drill. Good bonding time with my son............have fun!
Hey Brian, the bits only come in one size, but different lengths. I used the six inch, part numbers BURCSR6 and BURFS6. The cartridge sanding rolls were TA 4660A.
My son and I pulled out the old camshaft yesterday evening. The front bearing looked good. Not suprised to find two of the exhaust lobes worn down, #2 and #8. Always suspected them from valve lash settings and spark plug condition. Here's a pic of the new TA 212 cam on the right next to the old Comp 260 cam on the left. Up close i can see the taller and wider lobes of the 212 cam. TA 212 cam card specs have some nice duration. With my 1.65 roller rockers should get lift in the .483-.485 range with another degree or two of duration. Talked to the machinist today, he said after inspecting the heads he can shave .060 off. That should provide almost 10.1 static cr for this cam. Next to do is order a bunch of the wear parts i've been keeping a list of..............and get a hold of the folks who have offered their wisdom, especially when it comes to degreeing the cam.
dont forget about adjustable or different legnth pushrods! and matching the intake side of the heads to match the intake.
Yep, got an adjustable pushrod on my order list...............and my machinist and i decided to do a mock up fit before machining the intake side of the head. The Comp 260 cam was good for a lot of torque down low. I believe the lobe wear was a result of poor break-in proceedure when it was rebuilt 30,000 miles ago and modern oils.
