Who does the best head porting on stock heads????
- Thread starter ChanceG
- Start date
There are people who can do better than champion, but the champions are a sure thing, and a decent price as well. Only thing I dont like about them are the PC type valve seals and the bronze guides. Bronze guides dont last too long if ANYTHING at all isnt right with the motor, like a tiny amount of dirt or whatever that the filter doesnt catch, and if the stem to guide clearance isnt perfect, they can fall apart. I wont run anything but iron guides in anything I have. Just saw too many heads come back with worn to hell bronze guides in the engine building days. If you do run bronze, check yourself for perfect stem to guide clearance, and run brand new valves, always. Some engine builders will polish valve stems, which makes the surface just rough enough that it will wear the bronze out. Whats even worse about running used valves with new bronze guides, is that 99% of engine builders glass bead the valves to get all the carbon off, and they dont tape off the stems to keep the beads from hitting them, plus the valves bang and clank against each other which puts tiny nicks in the stems. Doesnt feel rough to the hands, but its rough on bronze.Bronze is just so much softer than super hardened steel. Just takes too many things to reliably run them, so I always opt for iron. The expansion rate is about the same as the steel valve guide, while bronze will expand ALOT more and can close up the guide and cause binding if you dont have enough heat dissapation for the exhaust valve and seat...like people who cut the valve seat with too narrow of a 45, and same goes for the valve itself. You gotta run a fat seat to get rid of that heat. As usual, I wrote about 1000 times more than I needed to. Buy Champion CNC's. 
Fox Lake does REALLY kick ass porting as well.
Fox Lake does REALLY kick ass porting as well.ahollowtub
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
Ive got a set of ported Champion Irons that id almost garantee couldnt be matched by any other head porter.They were originally $2300 from Champion w/ o rings and pinned decks.
Gary Wells
White turbo Buick trailer park trash
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2002
I agree with VadersV6 regarding Champion Racing Head Service. There might be better porters out there, but your chances of receiving a proven set of ported heads are not as good as they would be with Champion. One of the criterion would be whether you want working smog legal heads or not. Most head shops seem to want to remove the camel hump and fill and weld the EGR port when they do the port matching of the intake manifold. I have heard pro and con regarding smog legal heads. BPE racing Head Service in Placentia, Cal. does excellent head work also.
http://www.bpeheads.com/
http://www.bpeheads.com/
So how much did they flow. Ive heard numbers like 213cfm intake and 173 cfm exhaust@.500in for some of Duttweilers.ahollowtub said:Ive got a set of ported Champion Irons that id almost garantee couldnt be matched by any other head porter.They were originally $2300 from Champion w/ o rings and pinned decks.
Gary Wells
White turbo Buick trailer park trash
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2002
------------------------BAGN said:
Do you guys have a site that advertises prices, or do you care to post a few basic, elementary prices on head service just to give us an idea. I would be interested in knowing.
ttypewe4jim
pa turbo buick racing
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2002
DMan
buh bye
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
One final name to consider is Todd McKenzie. Todd's shop is around the corner from Kenny Duttweiler and HE does all of Duttweiler's cylinder head work. Duttweiler told me that himself when I called Duttweiler about head work. McKenzie is awesome. Best of all its a ONE MAN SHOP. Just him. One throat to choke, so to speak. I sent him two sets of factory iron cylinder heads and he did them both perfectly. He flows them too. My numbers are 208.3 intake and 166.9 exhaust.
His work was featured in Chevy Hi Performance.
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/95518_small_block_cylinder_head_porting/index.html
He has done many buick heads. Very reasonable price. He also ported and matched the manifold and did a great job with that as well.
His work was featured in Chevy Hi Performance.
http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/95518_small_block_cylinder_head_porting/index.html
He has done many buick heads. Very reasonable price. He also ported and matched the manifold and did a great job with that as well.
TURBOTERRORV6
The Street killer V6
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2005
conleyracing.comWells said:
Or just send a junkyard pair my way. 20 years experience (with porting) and I never send out junk. Porting has been a side business for a long time, and I temporarily retired a couple years ago. Looking to start up again. Also plan on setting up some CNC programs and machining some fixtures in the future, if theres enough interest. Been a CNC programmer for 10 years. An engine machinist builder for 7 before that. Workin on engines 7 years before that.
Dont go big valve cause the cylinders are too small and the valves will be shrouded....bigger valves-same flow numbers as before, but way less velocity. Regardless of who does them, champion is tried and true. Ive seen some work done by some people who have done TR heads for people on this board, and the work was so unbelievably horrible that I told my friend to send them back red label. I would always recommend having them flowed at an independant shop after porting and inspect everything for consistency. Valve heights all the same, chambers shrouded the same, ports the same size...all that stuff. Those heads I was talking about- the chambers varied about 5cc's and the ports varied 1/8" in size. Valve heights varied 1/16", chambers all over the place...and the work costed 900 bucks. When my friend returned them, the guy said he never had any complaints before. Scares me to think how many horrible sets of heads are on TR's right now....detonation problems that cant be tracked down, oil burning problems, valvetrain issues, etc. Scary thought.
Dont go big valve cause the cylinders are too small and the valves will be shrouded....bigger valves-same flow numbers as before, but way less velocity. Regardless of who does them, champion is tried and true. Ive seen some work done by some people who have done TR heads for people on this board, and the work was so unbelievably horrible that I told my friend to send them back red label. I would always recommend having them flowed at an independant shop after porting and inspect everything for consistency. Valve heights all the same, chambers shrouded the same, ports the same size...all that stuff. Those heads I was talking about- the chambers varied about 5cc's and the ports varied 1/8" in size. Valve heights varied 1/16", chambers all over the place...and the work costed 900 bucks. When my friend returned them, the guy said he never had any complaints before. Scares me to think how many horrible sets of heads are on TR's right now....detonation problems that cant be tracked down, oil burning problems, valvetrain issues, etc. Scary thought.
deezdad
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2005
Can anyone elaborate on the direction this thread was heading namely the topic of velocity in the heads, is it a bad thing to run a small turbo with ported heads (champ irons)?
Does running a small combo thru good heads negatively affect low end?
Apologies to those who get angry with old threads being bumped up I sometimes have a tough time wording my questions and this one has it layed out already..
Does running a small combo thru good heads negatively affect low end?
Apologies to those who get angry with old threads being bumped up I sometimes have a tough time wording my questions and this one has it layed out already..
- Joined
- May 28, 2001
The only problem you will have running a small turbo, stock or slightly bigger, is that you can run out of turbo with ported heads. Meaning the motor will literally nose over because the heads can outflow the CFM of the turbo.
Running a small combo will not affect low end at all, as a matter of fact you will have a better low end due to the better flow of the heads.
Flow matters in any head turbo or normally aspirated.
- Joined
- May 26, 2001
Good questions even though this is an old thread!
We have proved many times that there is no downside to running ported heads with a stock or small upgrade turbo like a 44/49/60.
HP is made in the heads, the bottom end just keeps everything together.
The fact is that boost is restriction, so the goal is to minimize air flow restriction as much as feasible with porting and valves.
With ported iron heads, a small, or any turbo, that is the deciding factor of max HP, not the flow numbers, you will just have a lower boost level there!
Just remember, the proper combination of other parts is also very important for the performance level you are seeking within your budget.
