Got some light sanding done so there arnt any mountains in there. Gonna go ahead and get um flowed to see how far off my rough cuts are, then cut again, test, polish, etc. tonights pictures: post 100 grit
i think a good couple passes with some 60 grit spiral cones and another pass with 100 will smooth it out real nice.

 

You can polish the exhaust and the chamber if like but leave the Intake a little rough and youll be good

 

well I figured I'd go ahead and get them flowed to see if the ports are flowing the same, then polish, so if i need to make any more adjustments, i can go ahead and make them before i spend many more hours polishing the exhaust ports and combustion chambers to a mirror

 

Okay guys.
So now I'm realizing I may have done extensive research on head porting, but didn't think about the whole realm of the process. Honestly, I'm kind of annoyed with myself... part of the reason they teach like they do here at UNCC in the engineering department is so that we think of every little detail of every step and plan everything before we execute.

So story to be told: during this whole process, I knew I was going to need to flow test these heads, and figured eh, 80-100 bucks here and there, i may end up with sorta okay heads for about 300-400 bucks max... well, if anyone knows of someone with a bench flow tester around NC, please let me know.... I spoke with the owner of advanced inductions, and they're too busy to flow heads right now, they're just workin on their orders (glad they're stayin busy), and i spoke with RF Engines, also near Charlotte here, and they want near 400 bucks to do it. I may as well find a secondhand set for that!

So while keeping in mind, the whole point of doing this, was to save a few bucks and experiment with hand porting to see if I can create a set of better flowing heads for next to nothing. So if flow testing defeats the purpose of doing it by hand, that brings me to my next topic: Why can't I design my own device to measure airflow?
Why not just use someones old exhaust header (for the exhaust port) and an intake manifold flange with a tube welded to it, with a hole and a rubber grommet to hold and seal the sensor tip of an anemometer on the exit side of each port.. Use regulated compressed air to blow air through each port, with another homemade intake tube that bolts to each port...

I mean would it really be that hard to seal off each port and create a homemade port flow testing device using an anemometer and some common parts around the garage/junkyard...? Surely measuring air flow isn't some space age technology that only large equipment manufacturers can duplicate....

 

Google is your friend. I know a long while back seeing home build flow bench designs on the net. Don't you have any resources at your engineering college? Also, continue to ask around, there has to be some small outfit, or one man shop that has something. Especially in your dirt.

 

We have more precision equipment than the vast majority of engineering schools in the country, gaining access to them is the tricky part. Still unsure if the school has a flow bench in the motorsports building, but I am planning on asking some old instructors of mine if they know if the school has one, if they have access to it, and if they wouldnt mind helping me get access to them as well.
Only problem is, there's a ton of gearheads at UNCC... just about every single mengr student is a total gearhead, and the faculty knows it, so they keep a pretty tight hold on the equipment. I'll keep askin around for private owners, I'd love to find an old soul that has access to one that could teach me some things. My grandpa was a machinest but died when I was young and I never really got to learn much from him. If anyone knows of anyone, please let me know!

 

Somewhere in my piles of stuff I have old magazine articles from the early 90's about building your own flow bench so I'm sure they'd be easy to find on the web. I've never gotten around to building one though.

I just use an inside caliper to get them all even.




Here's a pic of my exhaust port I did. I'd post the intake too but apparently I didn't take any pictures of the intake port.

 

jacecil, use some WD40 on your carbide cutters and a little in the port when your shaping them(roughing them out) If you have Harbor Freight stores in your area get the $21 pack of assorted cartridge rolls and 2 mandrels, use the rough tapered cartridge rolls at medium speed to get all the wavyness out of the ports, they do a great job at making the port work look more uniform. Then, use the fine cartridge rolls to go even nicer finish. You can then polish your exhaust ports by hand sanding them with 240 paper then 320. Its a lot like doing body work on a car.

Use good US made double cross cut carbide cutters made for steel on your aluminum heads and WD40 so they don't load up and you'll find that shaping is very easy with this.

 

hey thanks for the suggestion man, i actually was using a little wd40 here and there..maybe not enough in some circumstances. i figure now I really just need some rough sanding cones to go back at it and get rid of the rough bumps, then go to finer and finer grits, as long as my ports are somewhat of the same size...

 

hey thanks for the suggestion man, i actually was using a little wd40 here and there..maybe not enough in some circumstances. i figure now I really just need some rough sanding cones to go back at it and get rid of the rough bumps, then go to finer and finer grits, as long as my ports are somewhat of the same size...




[QUOTE=squarles67;19692862]Somewhere in my piles of stuff I have old magazine articles from the early 90's about building your own flow bench so I'm sure they'd be easy to find on the web. I've never gotten around to building one though.

I just use an inside caliper to get them all even.



those look pretty dang good man. i hope i can keep grindin to get mine as good lookin at those

 

hey thanks for the suggestion man, i actually was using a little wd40 here and there..maybe not enough in some circumstances. i figure now I really just need some rough sanding cones to go back at it and get rid of the rough bumps, then go to finer and finer grits, as long as my ports are somewhat of the same size...




those look pretty dang good man. i hope i can keep grindin to get mine as good lookin at those

 

got some more done on the heads, finally. Been busy lately. Found a common design for home made flow benches and all my ports are faiiirly close to one another in terms of flow. Two exhaust valves needed a bit more opening up and polishing to match the others, but the intakes are almost identical in flow according to my cheap flow setup. I'm still definitely gonna spend a few hundred and send um off to have them professionally flowed just to make sure, before i slap them on and get ol dolly the datsun retuned.

Let me know what yall think.
I's love to show them to someone in person who has experience with porting heads. I just simply dont know how close the tolerances oughta be for uniformity....

 

Badass. Thanks for sharing, look forward to following this one

 

Got all of the intake ports sanded down from the rough cut that they were earlier, since they all flowed nearly identically on my flowbench contraption. Some pics...



Im tryin not to get too nitpicky here at the end so i dont spend another 40 hours on these dang things. Already have 30+ invested... hope this is worth it...

 

some intake port bowl pics

 

Those look really good. How many hours work into these?

 

hey thanks. i'm not sure, i think around 30 or more. lost count..

 

did some racing on my current setup at zmax over the past weekend... cant wait to finish these heads and take down some faster competitors!

 

Cool vids. Love the speed shifting and reeling in $70,000 dollar Vettes.

 

Wow great video. Same powertrain as my gto, minus 1000 pounds! That thing is a beast. I had a 240z back in the day, awesome car.