Boosted heads
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 604
Likes: 1
From: Gainesville FL
Boosted heads I have a set of bran new LSA heads. How much HP and tq am I leaving on the table if I don't have them ported ? Motor is lq4 forged pistons and rods stock crank lsa heads and a Novi 2200sl ? Just trying to decide if I want to spend the extra 1200 bucks for minimum gain.
TECH Regular
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 414
Likes: 5
From: SV, AZ
It all depends on the package your putting together.
Pump gas, street car? I'm porting the heads to keep the charge temp down and prevent detonation. I'll make the same power, or even more, on less boost. You'll have a bigger tuning window.
Race gas, race car? Leave them be and turn up the boost!
Pump gas, street car? I'm porting the heads to keep the charge temp down and prevent detonation. I'll make the same power, or even more, on less boost. You'll have a bigger tuning window.
Race gas, race car? Leave them be and turn up the boost!
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It all depends on the package your putting together.
Pump gas, street car? I'm porting the heads to keep the charge temp down and prevent detonation. I'll make the same power, or even more, on less boost. You'll have a bigger tuning window.
Race gas, race car? Leave them be and turn up the boost!
Pump gas, street car? I'm porting the heads to keep the charge temp down and prevent detonation. I'll make the same power, or even more, on less boost. You'll have a bigger tuning window.
Race gas, race car? Leave them be and turn up the boost!
Just depends how efficient you need to be.
I'm going with TF255 heads for this exact reason. I don't want meth and will be running pump gas.
All depends.
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I guess it really depends on your budget and if you think it's going to be worth it. I'd say there is a benefit to having the heads ported, but by no means is it necessary to achieve excellent HP/TQ in a street-car. By the way, is this Novi 2200 going in an F-Body?
I vote to port the heads. $100 in a electric grinder and a couple aluminum carbide bits. It's just a few hours of time to port the obvious yourself. Get the $15 eBay valve spring compressor and go to town.
I literally just spent 3 hrs porting my other 862 5.3 head that I'm going to swap my stock 5.3 with a torque storm supercharger at 12psi. I spent 6hrs on the first head but that was bc I broke my last bit and needed to wait for more. I'm doing it and a cam swap and I expect 100-150hp with just the cam and heads and no other changes.
you can pick up some flow by working right behind the valves. Smooth the transition and remove the swirl ramp. The taper the valve stem guides and remove any flash etc. super easy. Then get a performance valve job. I would think 9 hrs is worth $1200 to me lol. The thing with boost is you don't need crazy ported/high flowing heads. The psi your adding makes up for it. Basically smoothing out the transitions and machining marks will reduce airflow disturbances and increase flow. Which helps with detonation and makes more power. Thus requiring less boost to make more power. The problem with superchargers is that it's more difficult to crank up the boost which is the easy way to solve poor flowing head issues. More boost = more power. But the overall goal is to make more power with less boost. So you have less potential problems by running less boost.
I literally just spent 3 hrs porting my other 862 5.3 head that I'm going to swap my stock 5.3 with a torque storm supercharger at 12psi. I spent 6hrs on the first head but that was bc I broke my last bit and needed to wait for more. I'm doing it and a cam swap and I expect 100-150hp with just the cam and heads and no other changes.
you can pick up some flow by working right behind the valves. Smooth the transition and remove the swirl ramp. The taper the valve stem guides and remove any flash etc. super easy. Then get a performance valve job. I would think 9 hrs is worth $1200 to me lol. The thing with boost is you don't need crazy ported/high flowing heads. The psi your adding makes up for it. Basically smoothing out the transitions and machining marks will reduce airflow disturbances and increase flow. Which helps with detonation and makes more power. Thus requiring less boost to make more power. The problem with superchargers is that it's more difficult to crank up the boost which is the easy way to solve poor flowing head issues. More boost = more power. But the overall goal is to make more power with less boost. So you have less potential problems by running less boost.