Did my own heads, mistake worked out.

[Mike T]

I did all of the port work , spring install & set spring height myself. The heads were sent out for guides, seat cutting and surfacing to reduce cc. Porting started with opening & blending exhaust ports to exactly the same shape as my manifolds, opening up the exhaust valve pocket for new larger ferrea valves, reducing the profile of the guide in the exhaust port. The intake side got the same treatment excluding the larger valve and the intake runners in my opinion are a decent size already and only need about 1/2 the work that the exhaust side needed.

Next the rocker pedestals were clearanced for rollers. Now the mistake, when removing hot spots from the combustion chamber I got carried away and removed too much material. I did not know what the quinch/squish area was and had layed the chambers back until it was almost gone. After laying my head gasket on found that when unshrouding the valves had removed too much material as well (fire ring was right on the edge). With hours of porting already invested decided to take a chance and ruin the other five combustion chambers as well. After duplicating my mistake 5 more times the heads were sent out for the above procedures (embarrassed when I dropped them off).

When picking the heads up to my suprise the only remark was " port job was nice & symmetrical". With the new found encouragement began to install the seals & valves, the whole time thinking these head are going to detonate like hell. After 4 hours of obsessing about valve/retainer/keeper, and what hole to put each valve into combonations that would give me exactly the same amount of shims & shim thickness on each cylinder and exact install height had to settle for within .002 on each. I know a big waste of time but it made me happy.

Fast forward, similar attention to detail/mistakes went into the rest of the motor and to my amazment the heads have not cracked due to the extra material remove from the combustion chambers. The car actually runs very good with no detonation at high boost levels.

 

[The Radius Kid]

I did all of the port work , spring install & set spring height myself. The heads were sent out for guides, seat cutting and surfacing to reduce cc. Porting started with opening & blending exhaust ports to exactly the same shape as my manifolds, opening up the exhaust valve pocket for new larger ferrea valves, reducing the profile of the guide in the exhaust port. The intake side got the same treatment excluding the larger valve and the intake runners in my opinion are a decent size already and only need about 1/2 the work that the exhaust side needed.

Next the rocker pedestals were clearanced for rollers. Now the mistake, when removing hot spots from the combustion chamber I got carried away and removed too much material. I did not know what the quinch/squish area was and had layed the chambers back until it was almost gone. After laying my head gasket on found that when unshrouding the valves had removed too much material as well (fire ring was right on the edge). With hours of porting already invested decided to take a chance and ruin the other five combustion chambers as well. After duplicating my mistake 5 more times the heads were sent out for the above procedures (embarrassed when I dropped them off).

When picking the heads up to my suprise the only remark was " port job was nice & symmetrical". With the new found encouragement began to install the seals & valves, the whole time thinking these head are going to detonate like hell. After 4 hours of obsessing about valve/retainer/keeper, and what hole to put each valve into combonations that would give me exactly the same amount of shims & shim thickness on each cylinder and exact install height had to settle for within .002 on each. I know a big waste of time but it made me happy.

Fast forward, similar attention to detail/mistakes went into the rest of the motor and to my amazment the head have not cracked due to the extra material remove from the combustion chambers. The car actually runs very good with no detonation at high boost levels.

 

[Paul Lohr]

Glad this maybe has worked out to your favor.

Any idea what the compression ratio is?

Are you using the factory knock sensor to watch for detonation?

How much boost and how much timing?

Thank you for any help,
Paul Lohr

 

[Mike T]

Glad this maybe has worked out to your favor.

Any idea what the compression ratio is?

Are you using the factory knock sensor to watch for detonation?

How much boost and how much timing?

Thank you for any help,
Paul Lohr

I would need find my specs on everything but the compression should be about stock. The cc test was very low tech, I used a turkey baster & cc measuring cup with a mark on it. The material removed was somewhat offset by flat faced valves and head surfacing, combustion chamber was about 5-10 cc larger than stock. JE pistons were used and have a slightly higher compression over stock so over all should balance out.

Timing is @ 18-19, recorded boost has been 21 in 4th gear on 93 octane.

New GM knock sensor & PowerLogger.

In a current discussion in General Turbo Buick Tech, under Max Boost on 93 octane, my PowerLogger screen shot is in post 29

 

[turbojoe1]

Not a bad port job, chambers look good. Big but good. I made my own cc kit the 1st time with my kids liquid medicine dropper 2 yrs back "only read up to 10mL's but it worked".


Joe

 

[Mike T]

Not a bad port job, chambers look good. Big but good. I made my own cc kit the 1st time with my kids liquid medicine dropper 2 yrs back "only read up to 10mL's but it worked".


Joe

wanted them bigger and more open but not as big as what the end result was. Head gaskets almost became a problem because of the fire ring being so close to the edge. like your signature that's kind of how I do things, most of my parts were bought second hand from guys that did not use them.

 

[turbojoe1]

Nice work, i've been keeping tabs on the other thread you posted.


Joe

 

[Mike T]

Nice work, i've been keeping tabs on the other thread you posted.


Joe

Thanks for the comments. A few pictures of the motor as I was building it & the intake that I welded up the EGR and ported.