While I have my heads off....

[blackbuick87]

OK, I am planning ahead a little since I wont be doing this for about a month, but I have to change both head gaskets.
On my workbench I have a dremel tool just sitting there, hmmmm...

What do you guys think, should I attempt a little pocket porting? I DO have and extra set of heads sitting on the original engine from my car in the corner of my garage, so if I screw something up bad I have a backup.

I am willing to do all the reading in the world necessary from gnttype and standard abrasives website, and any other sources that are Buick specific, but there is more to the job than just reading. I have never ported a head before of any type.

Right now I am trapping about 107-108, so do you think at my perf level I will benefit from this? Future plans call for a TA49 and maybe a new IC and injectors, thats about it.
TIA

 

[UNGN]

I would ask around and find a good, reputable cylinder head or machine shop and have them do a 3 angle valve job. Many will back cut the stock valves for the price of the valve job. This should cost between $100 and $250 total, more if they put in new valve guides or resurface things.

From there you can carefully blend in the machine cuts into cast ports. It's very easy with a dremel and if you take your time, you won't mess up any of the machine work.

Do the following:

1. Make the short side transitions into sweeping radii.
2. Smooth the roofs of the ports (don't take excess material from floors past the shortside radii)
3. Smooth the intake pushrod pinch into a smooth curve
4. Clean up casting flash in ports
5. Match the ports to a gasket or manifold

The best tool to use for this is an expensive (but worth every penny) double cut carbide burr. Even with a low power dremel, it will cut cast iron like butter and requires very little force to cut.

 

[qtr@atyme]

Call LUALLENS CYCLINDER HEADS located in southern Indiana
Extreme quality at reasonable prices. Can port you heads in any stage you like, and fit your budgit. For the time a guy would spend on porting them himself and the tools and materials your would have to pick up , you would be leaps and bounds ahead !
BElive his fullout race job with all parts is under a grand and this cat knows how to port a Buick along with everything else.
call Chris @ (812)951-3027

 

[Blown&Injected]

I have fried many dremel tools doing far less work than what you are talking about.

Unless you are talking about the big dremel tool that has a big motor that hangs from the ceiling with a flex shaft I would not try it. Or an air powered die grinder.

 

[JToups386]

A couple of things to point out...:

Head porting is both an art and a science. People get paid good money to do them for a reason. You're paying for their already developed learning curve.
However, it does not mean that you cannot make some minor improvements, with little effort, if you really don't want to spend the money on someone else's labor.
UNGN gave you some very good pointers. Based on my own experience, I ported my last set of heads under the verbal advice of a local peformance head shop. He suggested that I could accomplish anywhere from 25-50% of what he would do, just by cleaning up the rough spots in the ports and gasket matching the ports. Polishing the chamber is easy, and very minor bowl work will yield favorable results, as long as you don't try to reshape things too much. A hard lesson I learned on my first set was; "bigger ain't always better...!" I had to replace them! I was able to run 11.91 @ 111 mph w/ a stock turbo and my second set of self-port jobs. Now I've upgraded to Champion CNC's, and am anxious to see how much they outperform my personal versions.

Bottom line is; be conservative!!! Save the heavy porting for the pros!
Also, if you don't have a die grinder, I wouldn't even bother. You'll toast that poor little Dremel, and then won't have anything to engrave balsa wood with anymore...

 

[UNGN]

Originally posted by Blown&Injected
I have fried many dremel tools doing far less work than what you are talking about.

Thats where good carbide cutters come in. The dremel doesn't even know its cutting. Eventually the dremel will be full of iron filings (after a few sets of heads) and not want to variable speed, but then just send it back to dremel and they'll send you a new one for $35. For light port work, its hard to beat the feel and precision of a dremel, especially for smoothing in, post machine work.

For opening the ports up or using long shaft cutters, a die grinder is the only way to go.

 

[blackbuick87]

Thanks for the advice. I certainly dont want to do too much, but as stated above I just want to clean things up a little. Just about anything will help the heads as cast I think.