Where to get 806 heads ported??
02-19-2017, 08:56 AM
#23
I have better things to do but sometimes you just can't help but stand close to the fire of ignorance(and perhaps stoke it)
At least from AI's sub-modern website, you can get prices. The prices would tell you that to get a truly good porting job you are going to be in a grand at least. Even if you went for a basic job, shipping is going to add up as well so you're in the neighborhood. Oh and AI gives you flow sheets on the site, too. You won't get that on most of the fancy websites. Seriously look at the results out there for their work also.
My post was a bit inflammatory for fun but there's good advice in there. Nobody ever plans to sell parts later but it happens. Even the whole car value will come into play. If I were looking at a car with ported heads and found out they were 806s, the value of the car would immediately decrease in my mind and wallet compared to 241s, etc. Porting 806s is like putting a $10K paint job on a Camry. Seriously not wise. That being said, the 806 head can be made to flow pretty well in the right hands. Some of those newer shops with the pretty websites may have never even had their hands on a set of 806s before. They are rare--but not the good kind of rare.
No panties, no bunches. You asked for a good head porting firm when you actually meant to ask for a head porting firm with a modern website. I see you making two mistakes that many, MANY folks here have made and learned from, and offer advice around it. If you don't want the advice, no sweat. It's yours to ignore. At this point, at least on this subject, the panties at best are on your head blocking your ability to see good info in front of you. Put those panties where they belong. On your vagina. Then get them in a proper bunch. And call AI and ask them if they have an old set of 241 or 853 cores they can port for you.
BTW, the economics of this industry are not at all what you may think comparing to Amazon.com and similar where most of the crap is made for pennies in foreign countries. (Yes; I also buy too much junk from Amazon). Companies like AI have hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars invested in equipment that also requires a lot of feeding/maintenance. They pay workers here in the states a decent wage and deal with a lot of competent as well as incompetent (the guys that are better at websites than porting) competition in the market so at the end of the day squeaking out a 5%-10% profit(and probably reinvesting that in equipment) doesn't put them in the mindset to spend on the website. Maybe that's a bit old-fashioned but they know how to make power and the proof is everywhere.
AI always has a backlog of work to do. And increasing volume isn't $200 for the website. It's $500K for more equipment and $100K per year to feed and man said equipment. Not the same as ordering more widgets and marking them up and selling them on a website. These guys are doing WORK. I posit that much of their work comes in through shops that are basically distributors/resellers of their products. So this is a case where we are lucky the mfg will let us go direct if we choose. Plenty of mfgs in many industries have less than stellar web presence because they are encouraging sales through value-added resellers such as speed shops that install, tune the heads along with other coordinating parts. Go check out some of the actual websites of the mfgs in China for some of the junk we buy on Amazon--good comedy there. But it doesn't matter as Amazon is the front.
Frankenstein is another very good firm and their website does have a more modern look to it. But you won't find flow sheets for each port job. If their website is up to your standards, give them a call. You won't be disappointed with their work.
At least from AI's sub-modern website, you can get prices. The prices would tell you that to get a truly good porting job you are going to be in a grand at least. Even if you went for a basic job, shipping is going to add up as well so you're in the neighborhood. Oh and AI gives you flow sheets on the site, too. You won't get that on most of the fancy websites. Seriously look at the results out there for their work also.
My post was a bit inflammatory for fun but there's good advice in there. Nobody ever plans to sell parts later but it happens. Even the whole car value will come into play. If I were looking at a car with ported heads and found out they were 806s, the value of the car would immediately decrease in my mind and wallet compared to 241s, etc. Porting 806s is like putting a $10K paint job on a Camry. Seriously not wise. That being said, the 806 head can be made to flow pretty well in the right hands. Some of those newer shops with the pretty websites may have never even had their hands on a set of 806s before. They are rare--but not the good kind of rare.
No panties, no bunches. You asked for a good head porting firm when you actually meant to ask for a head porting firm with a modern website. I see you making two mistakes that many, MANY folks here have made and learned from, and offer advice around it. If you don't want the advice, no sweat. It's yours to ignore. At this point, at least on this subject, the panties at best are on your head blocking your ability to see good info in front of you. Put those panties where they belong. On your vagina. Then get them in a proper bunch. And call AI and ask them if they have an old set of 241 or 853 cores they can port for you.
BTW, the economics of this industry are not at all what you may think comparing to Amazon.com and similar where most of the crap is made for pennies in foreign countries. (Yes; I also buy too much junk from Amazon). Companies like AI have hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars invested in equipment that also requires a lot of feeding/maintenance. They pay workers here in the states a decent wage and deal with a lot of competent as well as incompetent (the guys that are better at websites than porting) competition in the market so at the end of the day squeaking out a 5%-10% profit(and probably reinvesting that in equipment) doesn't put them in the mindset to spend on the website. Maybe that's a bit old-fashioned but they know how to make power and the proof is everywhere.
AI always has a backlog of work to do. And increasing volume isn't $200 for the website. It's $500K for more equipment and $100K per year to feed and man said equipment. Not the same as ordering more widgets and marking them up and selling them on a website. These guys are doing WORK. I posit that much of their work comes in through shops that are basically distributors/resellers of their products. So this is a case where we are lucky the mfg will let us go direct if we choose. Plenty of mfgs in many industries have less than stellar web presence because they are encouraging sales through value-added resellers such as speed shops that install, tune the heads along with other coordinating parts. Go check out some of the actual websites of the mfgs in China for some of the junk we buy on Amazon--good comedy there. But it doesn't matter as Amazon is the front.
Frankenstein is another very good firm and their website does have a more modern look to it. But you won't find flow sheets for each port job. If their website is up to your standards, give them a call. You won't be disappointed with their work.
Last edited by Mercier; 02-19-2017 at 09:35 AM.
02-19-2017, 05:55 PM
#24
TECH Senior Member
Well-put, Mercier. In other areas, I too have found that a glitzy website does NOT always indicate competent work/product.
02-20-2017, 11:47 AM
#26
One good CNC machine can cost anywhere from half a million dollars to over a million dollars depending on size, condition and age. These aren't inexpensive machines by any means.
Some shops have a reserve of cores and others may need you to supply the cores. Personally, if I was gonna do ported heads, it would be 243 or aftermarket castings. IMO, it isn't worth the effort to port the older factory heads.
