Wish i would have asked for this before i got started, but not letting it keep me down i did more research and i went to work on the other head... heres my progress so far on the first two intake sides..
You're getting the idea I think. Just takes some practice. I have 24 years experience doing body work so I can contour and shape metal and other materials in my sleep, so I guess I have a nice head start on my head porting. Imagine the air flowing past it. If you see any irregularities, smooth those over so the metal blends together. If I were you'd I'd focus more on just cleaning up the runners, using their original shape as a guide and not get too carried away with removing material. A gasket match and guide contouring with a little short radius removal. Heck if all you did was open up the bowl throat a little and contour the guides and cleaned up the runners, you'd be way ahead over stock untouched heads. :TU: Keep up the good work man. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Thanks for the encouragment! i feel like im starting to get the hang of it i ran out of light before i could get to the finer work but i like how its looking so far.. and just using my hands i can feel a huge difference in how well everything flows.
On the one you ground thru,is that the pushrod hole? Gessler had ported some that he put a sleeve in pushrod holes.they where on his website. he also had some he epoxy filled.
yeah i believe it is.. i found another head for $75 + the old head from Ken Betts here. Seems good to me for a bit of peice of mind.. ---------- Post added at 11:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:36 PM ---------- as far as the exhaust side should i grind down the valve guide hump as much or more then i did the intake? and the exhaust side should be polished right? and not the intake.
Yes the exhaust can be polished .but your shop might use a blaster for cleanup on head.they did that on mine.but go over them with sanding rolls. I just picked up a set of 70 heads I'm gonna port then flow them with big valves to make sure I get at least 260 on intake. I'm making a stroker with offset ground crank 1.888 journals with a set of Yates rods that are 6.200 long. I just need to figure pistons out for 8.5 or 8.75 compression for a supercharger engine. Then sell my regals for a skylark to pro street setup.should be fun.
Well went and picked up the new head from kens nephew and only have two exhuast bowls left on the first head, everything is going good so far. I did manage to nick the seats on one of them, it doesnt matter to much since im getting larger valves put in anyways correct?
Thanks Sean, trying my best to go off the info ive gathered heres some more pics of my finished job and the work so far on the new head until i ran out of daylight! On of the ports on the finished head tried my best to match them all and they are pretty close new head Still need to finish a little more but i ran out of light!
Looking good.don't forget to get an aluminum bit and match ports on intake.mine where much smaller than heads
how important is opening the ports on the intake? They were cleaned up already by the previous owner but not made any larger. Im pretty nervous about the intake
Put your gasket on it and you should see the difference in size .you don't have to but after looking at size and with the gasket match on heads you might want to consider it.
alright they are a bit smaller then the gasket so i probly should do a little. any tips for this? on another note both the heads are finished! tomorrow ill be calling ta to order the valves, stage 1 springs (called ta and thats what they said) and some buick red for the block! Is there anything else i should order this time around? keep in mind im trying to save some money for the needed headwork, my new machine shop quoted $700 for a valve job, installing oversized valves, hardened seats (just learned i really only need exhuast for buick heads right?) measuring the ccs and milling them down to 51cc's.
Make sure you get proper grinding tips for aluminum. tips for iron will get clogged up .I didn't get new exhaust seats with my heads. but yes only exhaust. they will be cutting into fresh material for larger valve so valves won't be sunk .
Make sure the machine shop checks your valves for proper concentricity. Yeah, only exhaust needs hardened seats. (Some say they don't even need them (because Buick uses higher nickel content in their iron), but it's a good idea just to be on the safe side).
ok.. ta should take care of me if somethings wrong with the valves right? And thats good news! that should cut down the cost a little bit. getting a little closer every day!
My next engine build will have hardened seats put into them. I've had a 350 burn out the valves before because of hard driving and advanced timing, so I suppose under 'normal' driving conditions no seats would be ok, but I was never easy on any of my Buicks... Yeah TA's a good company. Mike and Mike Jr. seem to be pretty straight-forward with good integrity. I foresee zero problems dealing with them on anything.
Well ive yet to buy anything from them yet but have heard nothing but good things, and the phones calls that i have had with them were good. Im excited!
