Anyone have a good recommendation for a guide to head porting. I know what the jist of headporting entails, but would like the finer point for reference. I have looked online for a good while and cant quite find what I am looking for. I do alot of metal work, but have never done heads before. I just picked up a couple of sets of stock LS1 heads and I am going to give a wack at doing it myself. Any info would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks

Brandon

 

I don't know of one. I've read several good magazine articles through the years that were correct and informative, but those were few.

Best thing you can do is find a reputable head porter in your area and pay him to tutor you.

 

Well while good in theory, thats hard to workout in real life. I actually studied with a machinist for a while when I got out of high school, but do to my work schedule this would be difficult. Although it would be well worth cash for someone that knows what they are doing if they would like to do some teaching on the weekend.

Any Takers?

 

I agree with Greg. All a book is going to do is describe and show you what the port is supposed to look like, YOU can do that without spending 20 bucks. I will say that David Vizard has some great information in his books, more noteably his SBC cylinder head book, on tricks of the trade. The main thing is not doing the intake or exhaust port but doing all of them to match each other. Get you some card board and use as a template for measuring and cut to fit the first ports you do so you can visually see how to shape the others. One thing I will say since I have done a couple is some pairs of heads do not match, you will see that one head has very slightly larger ports in it than the other one so that may make it harder for you to match one head to the other. TAKE YOUR TIME, the more time you take shapeing and blending, the better they will turn out. 260-270 is real easy to get if you do that. Do not hog them out, the port is already 198-202cc's in size, just shape and blend. Also on the exhaust side there is a coolant passage above the port were that small "bump" is, so when you port match the port to your header start about a half inch in so you will not hit it. Good luck.

 

Can't point to any book, except perhaps Vizard's book (Vizard is a good author though). But, you might consider Joe Mondello's courses.


Course Number
Course Title

HP-101 Performance Head Porting Course

LENGTH OF COURSE 45-50 hours; 8-10 hours/day; 5 Days/Week; 1 Week
LOCATION Mondello Technical School, 830 21st St. Paso Robles, CA
TUITION $3000, including room and board
COURSE DESCRIPTION The teaching of cylinder head design by porting and polishing intake ports, exhaust ports and combustion chambers. performance valve work and flow testing for maximum power and torque through increased air flow.
COURSE IN SERIES We have HP-101, described above, and Blueprinting 202; our high performance/racing engine blueprinting course. The classes are available on consecutive weeks.



The following skills/competencies and behaviors represent some of the learning outcomes which are present in the two courses offered by: MONDELLO TECHNICAL SCHOOL
READING/COMPREHENSION The class textbook covers hands-on techniques with charts and graphs on flow bench testing and cylinder head specifications
WRITTEN COMPREHENSION Students are given instruction and take notes on correct procedures, techniques, applications and usage of tools and abrasives to properly port cylinder heads with maximum efficiency and minimum time.
ORAL COMMUNICATION This course is 10% lecture using audio and video tapes along with live lectures and chalk board illustrations discussing the outline of our weeks work in hands-on porting of all types of cylinder heads.
CRITICAL THINKING/ PROBLEM SOLVING Students have to think out situations concerning how to achieve the shaping and finishing touches as they port.
DECISION MAKING/CONSENSUS We make it fairly easy to decide on the procedure to use through hands-on porting, sharing problems with the other students and through teaching of tried and true techniques.
HAND TO EYE COORDINATION Over 40 hours is used to teach the feel of actual grinding and polishing of the heads, valve work and machining in our high tech up to date professional classrooms.
POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MOTIVATION AND SELF-DIRECTION When our students graduate they are ready to face the world with great motivation and self direction how to achieve the redesigning and improvement of the cylinder heads capability to flow better.
TEAMWORK The students share their own knowledge and work together on individual problems and bad grinding habits in the classroom .
COMPUTATION (MATH) Some math is needed, usually can be done by calculator, to correct air flow figures for final equations and percentages.
TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES Students use hand and air grinders, carbide cutters, grinding and polishing abrasives with continual assistance from the instructor.
TECHNOLOGICAL COMPREHENSION After one week of instruction students can port and polish heads to high performance standards, do professional valve jobs, reface valves, use all the cylinder head equipment from K-line, Serdi, Rottler, Super-Flow, etc. to build a complete set of professional high performance cylinder heads.
CEU RECOMMENDATION 4 to 5 Continuing Education Units upon completion of this course.


BP-202 Racing Engine Blueprinting Course

LENGTH OF COURSE 45-50 hours; 8-10 hours/day; 5 Days/Week; 1 Week
LOCATION Mondello Technical School, 830 21st St. Paso Robles, CA
TUITION $3000, including room and board
COURSE DESCRIPTION The teaching of how to properly check all parts and pieces of the engine before and after all machining operations, during and after assembly of engine. How to check and correct all engine clearances, crankshaft strokes, camshaft degreeing, rocker arm geometry and engine blueprinting using the latest available equipment.
COURSE IN SERIES The BP-202, described above, and Head Porting 101 are run on consecutive weeks to allow a student to take both at one visit.



The following skills/competencies and behaviors represent some of the learning outcomes which are present in the two courses offered by: MONDELLO TECHNICAL SCHOOL
READING/COMPREHENSION The class textbook is full of do's and don'ts on the correct way to do all machining procedures, sonic testing, engine building sheets and every part-checking procedure we have found to be useful in our 45 years of innovation in the high performance industry. A racing engine can be blueprinted by following this text.
WRITTEN COMPREHENSION During video, audio and chalk board illustration exercises, students take notes and review the text daily to learn the art of engine blueprinting inside and out.
ORAL COMMUNICATION This course is approximately 20% lecture and 80% hands-on working on engines.
CRITICAL THINKING/ PROBLEM SOLVING Students will need to understand the word "blueprinting" and utilize special micrometers, hand tools and checking devices.
DECISION MAKING/CONSENSUS During the week the student gains enough experience and confidence to blueprint and build a racing engine.
HAND TO EYE COORDINATION This course entails 80% hands-on work for blueprinting and assembly using precision hand tools.
POSITIVE ATTITUDE, MOTIVATION AND SELF-DIRECTION Upon graduation, students fully understand racing engine design, blueprinting and assembly.
TEAMWORK The students share their knowledge and work together on exercises to check clearances and assemble engines.
COMPUTATION (MATH) Basic math, both manual and calculator, are used to figure final engine clearances.
TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES Students use hand tools, micrometers, feeler gauges, assembly lubricants; following our textbook and the instructors supervision.
TECHNOLOGICAL COMPREHENSION After one week in our engine blueprinting course students are able to check, blueprint and assemble a high performance racing engine using the proper hand tools and measuring devices.
CEU RECOMMENDATION 4 to 4.5 Continuing Education Units upon completion of this course.


Contact Information

Mailing Address 830 21st Street, Paso Robles, CA 93446

Fax 805-237-9154
E-mail joe@mondello.com
Orders Only 1-800-mondello (666-3355)
Phone 805-237-9185

 

Great information.

 

I would LOVE to take a course like that. However, there is no way that I could take my vacation time + $3000 to go do that, plus the airfair. It would be sweet though. Surely there is a local guru that would like to get some semi organized classroom stuff together. That would be a good way for someone to net some pretty good cash. To teach 2-5 people at a time on different points of engine building/machine work. Dont you guys think?

Brandon

 

If anyone could think of a Dallas area local guy that might be interested, I would be willing to do all the recruiting and organizing. They would just need to bring the knowledge.

Brandon

 

I guess my idea isnt as kean as I thought.

 

Get a hold of Trevor Johnson. He's in your area, and he's a damn good head porter.

Us head porters all know what we are (******), it's just a matter of price.

Make it worth his while and he'll probably do it.

 

Well said. Head porters do it for either the love of doing it or for the money because they are good at it, some do it for both. Either way you will be able to talk him or someone else into helping you.

 

Well I am a self proclaimed *****.......... So I can appreciate that. I dont want the knowledge to go start a shop or anything. Just want to be able to do it for myself, and know better about the work. So do you guys have any contact info for the above referenced guy?

Brandon

 

There's a couple shops in the area that may know some people. There is FastTech which is a little south of Dallas, and then you have Arlington MotorSports(obviously in Arlington). Keith @ AMS is a pretty good guy to talk to, he might be able to help you out/know someone who can. The guys @ FastTech are great to talk to as well.

 

i just bought david vizard's book"how to build & modify chevrolet small block V-8 cylinder heads".yes,it's been around for about 13 yrs but there is some very good information in it that can be applied to any head,not just an ls1.it only cost around 15.00.you can buy it at amazon.com.it's money well spent,IMO, if you are going to attempt to port your own heads.

 

Standard Abrasive makes porting supplies. They have a good DIY porting page.


http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.shtm

or the PDF version

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/portdiy/diyport.pdf