Follow my port and polish project

[DougsfastZ]

After learning from forcefed3.8's about the over hang in the exhaust manifolds with the primaries meeting the log, I decided to drill some holes and port them. I only had to drill three holes, one to port cylinder #5, one to port cylinder #4 and one to port cylinder #2. I was able to port the primary outlet on cylinder #6 through the inlet of the manifold from the crossover. I didn't need to port #1 or #3. I used an 1 1/4" bi metal hole saw to drill out the access holes. I kept the material that was removed to have them welded back.

Here is a picture of the hole I drilled for #5.

The hole for #4.

And the hole for #2. I did need to drill out the rivets for the heat shield, but will replace it when it's welded up.

Here are some shots of the primary outlets before porting. Excuse the dark pictures. It's really hard to tell, but some of the overhangs are over and 1/8" deep, which can't help air flow.

Here are the shots of the completed ports. It looks rough, but to the touch, they are nice and smooth now.

Continued........

 

[DougsfastZ]

I didn't take a picture of it before, but I noticed the factory 02 sensor bung was protruding into the log. I took it down with my football shaped double cut carbide burr. I'll most likely remove the factory 02 since I run a widband, that should help with flow.

 

[forcefed3.8's]

Looks good. On my number 3 cylinder, the primary tube was sticking out about 3/8" into the log. It was the worse one in the driver's side header. On my own headers, I used a 1 1/2" hole saw on the driver's and a 1 3/4" on the passenger's, and just welded carefully, trying to keep the weld from protruding. Now, I use the 1 3/4" plugs to fill the 1 1/2" holes, it fits perfectly. There is no gap for the weld to hang into. I then take a 2" hole saw and make 2 plugs out of some scrap stainless exhaust pipe for the passenger header. It makes welding easier. My holesaw was jumping around, and eating alot of metal. I can't wait to see your results. When are you planning a day at the track?

 

[DougsfastZ]

Looks good. On my number 3 cylinder, the primary tube was sticking out about 3/8" into the log. It was the worse one in the driver's side header. On my own headers, I used a 1 1/2" hole saw on the driver's and a 1 3/4" on the passenger's, and just welded carefully, trying to keep the weld from protruding. Now, I use the 1 3/4" plugs to fill the 1 1/2" holes, it fits perfectly. There is no gap for the weld to hang into. I then take a 2" hole saw and make 2 plugs out of some scrap stainless exhaust pipe for the passenger header. It makes welding easier. My holesaw was jumping around, and eating alot of metal. I can't wait to see your results. When are you planning a day at the track?

I checked carefully on mine, and #3 was actually the smoothest out of all the primaries, not enough for me to drill a hole. I was hoping that the metal I removed from my holes can be reused, but thanks for the tip of getting larger "caps" incase my welder can't use mine.

Our local track is down till at least October. As soon as it opens I plan to go out there. Not sure what I'm going to pick up with all this work, but all I'm looking to do is go 11's.

 

[GNBRETT]

Interesting post. Car looks good.

 

[DougsfastZ]

Haven't got much done this past weekend. Went to the Keys and had to deal with a tropical storm. I did have all my parts welded up, came out real nice.

A shot of the lower intake EGR hole sealed up.

Per mach.80, I had a bead welded on both ends of the uppipe. No issues with hoses blowing off now.

My welder guy couldn't reuse the metal from the holes I drilled. Reason was, the gapped that needed to be welded was pertruding into the manifold alot, obviously something I didn't want. So, he fashioned up some better plugs. I think it came out real nice.

 

[DougsfastZ]

Tonight I was able to reassemble my throttlebody and press in the bronze spacers in my exhaust manifolds. Per VaderV6 here, the factory exhaust manifold holes are .500 inch in diameter and the manifold bolts are .375 in diameter. Because of this, the manfold can be offset on the head, causing flow issues on the exhaust ports. To line up the manifold to the head, I bought bronze sleaves, with an OD of .500 and and ID of .375, 1.000 inch long. Cleaned up the two upper, outside manifold bolt holes with a 40 grit sand roll and used a rubber mallet to drive them in. Here are the results.

Here is the bronze sleave.

Here are shots of the completed throttle body. Notice I grinded off the pertuding threads of the flat heads bolts I used.

 

[Joe Kelsch]

Good work! You give us low buck guys lots of good ideas.

 

[DougsfastZ]

Today I worked on the turbine housing and finished up the exhaust manifold. I used a copper turbine to manifold gasket as a template and ported away.

On the right is the stock housing inlet, on the left is the ported one.

This pic shows the stock housing with the copper gasket revealing the ridge that the air sees coming out of the manifold.

Here is the ported housing, no ridge to speak of.

A shot of inside the inlet of the housing. Another thing I did was radius both sides of the wastegate hole. That should help some with air flow.

A shot of one of the exhaust manifold ports before porting.

Here is a couple of shots after porting. I didn't take off too much material since the flange is welded from the inside of the port. I also tried to put a small taper at the very edge.

I cleaned out the out let of the manifold, along with belt sanding the flange to help give a better seal.

Here is a shot of the manifold flange. I used a belt sander with 50 grit to get the surface nice a flat. Hopefully I'll have no leaks.

 

[DougsfastZ]

Got about 16 hours worth of work done on the car over the weekend. I gasket matched the intake runners on the heads and matched it to the lower intake. I used a Felpro 96033. The only thing I didn't match was the runner floor of the lower intake.

Here is the lower intake, with the gasket surfaced cleaned, pre porting.

Here are the heads, gasket surfaced cleaned, pre porting. Notice the cut sponges soaked in WD40 in the intake runners and coolant passages. This was done to keep metal shavings fromt getting into the top of the valves. I also pulled the rocker arms to make sure all the valves were closed.

Here is the a shot of the Felpro gasket laying in place on the heads. Notice the floor of the runner is already matched to the gasket, looks like Felpro looks like they know what were doing.

Continued............

 

[DougsfastZ]

These are shots of the 4 red dots where I drilled alignment holes. These red dots were actually too high and missed the gasket. So I moved the holes down towards the valley in the crevice between the intake bolt and the coolant passage. That brought the hole low enough to go through the gasket. I liked this location since it was on a blank spot on the head and I was able to get the drill at the right angle. I used 4 nails, 1/8" in diameter, with the tips cut off, as alignment dowels. All I did was drill through the intake, through the gasket, and maybe an 1/8" into the head.

Here is the shot of the drill bit with electrical tape being used as a depth gauge.

Here is a shot of the intake, with the correct holes drilled, and the nails being used as alignment pins.

These are pics of the scribe marks I made. All I did was pull the intake off carefully to not move the gasket, then scribed the marks on the heads using a dental tool. I didn't have any machinist die, so I use a very large permanent marker. Make sure you paint the head ports before installing the gasket and intake.

Continued......

 

[DougsfastZ]

Then I painted the runner exits on the intake with the marker. I took the gasket off and aligned it onto the intake using the nails. Here are the scribe marks.

Here are the heads ported to the scribe lines. I only ported down about an inch into the port. I only used the carbide burs and 80 grit sanding rolls.

Here is a shot of me porting while my brother held a powerful shop vac right above the port to help keep the shavings to a minimum. Notice I kept the valve covers on to keep metal from getting into the top of the heads.

Here are shots of the ported head runners with the gasket in place. Notice the nails lining everything up.

Continued

 

[DougsfastZ]

Here are shots of the lower intake ported. I only ported and blended about 2 inches up the runner. I left it at 80 grit.

The ports matched up to the gasket. Notice I did not port the floor, just deburred it.

Here is a shot of the intake bolted to the motor. I used a dental tool to feel down the runners. The transition feels nice and smooth. The floor of the runner drops a little bit into the head, but from what I understand, there is not much velocity on the floor.

Another thing I did was cut and old factory 02 sensor to the threads since I run a wide band now. The factory sensor is pretty large and can't help flow to the turbo.

Got about half of the motor put back together, it should be up and running in the next few days.

I did keep track of most of the before and after measurements using my digital caliper. I'll post those numbers in the next few days.

Unfortunately my local 1/4 mile track is closed till at least October, so I won't have any numbers till then. If I do feel a SOTP difference, I'll post about it.

Just FYI, I loosely calculated the work I've done about about 40 hours.

Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[Alky V6]

Dang good work. I am impressed. Can't wait to see how it works out.

 

[UNGN]

On the Upper intake, I welded in a piece of AL sheet to make a $3 Hemco.

I left the EGR tower in the lower in place, but turned the Upper manifold portion of the tower into a nice semi sphere, instead of just cutting it off (not shown in the above picture).

My car went 118.3 with an otherwise 100% stock longblock with 36# bluetops, so I don't think it was hurting anything.

 

[DougsfastZ]

I've seen you post about that before. I've been running a RJC power plate since I bought the car. From the data I've seen, the plate works better then a Hemco.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

great write up Dude.

 

[scojack_2001]

Nice write up. I got the 11-second stock turbo timeslip by running 26° of timing and 26psi. Stock untouched intake, only a ported compressor housing on the turbo, ported IC and plenum, stock TB, and a PP.

I havent been able to get back to that yet.

Hope you get that 11 second timeslip! I know I sure was surprised!

 

[Sleeper-6]

Nice write up! I vote that we make this a sticky.

 

[topfuel]

This is one of the best threads I've ever seen, nice job man.

I've gone 12.0 on the stock stuff but can't quite hit 11's.
Maybe doing this portwork will be my ticket to join the elite stock 11 second club!

Thanks for all the detailed description and keep up the good work...
And by the way, put on some safety glasses please...