I did exactly that with the exhaust cutter, because it fit even worse in the head than the intake cutter did.

The exhaust cutter didn't even hit the seats, it bound up on the chamber walls.
I ground the backside down until it sat better in the head...but after claying, it turns out I didn't even need to cut for the exhaust valve clearance anyways.

No worries, it's done and turned out just fine.

 

I went .085" on my set up... I also rented the LGM cuttin tool. Was not hard at all.

 

The LG motorsports tool is an ISKY cutting tool. I rented it also at one point.

Only did the intake side on my car. Not hard to use... just need to take your time and not let debris fly into the engine.

Thimble- depending upon your mileage... you may want to have Harlan Sharp rebuild your stock rockers. Good insurance.

-Mark

 

holy rough deck surface batman. Is it just me or is waterbugs surface job a bit extreme? damn I hope that seals.

 

Block sander or board file?

I scrubbed mine with scotchbrite pad and a final once-over with a large flat honing stone.

 

It's not as bad as it looks.

Scotchbrite here as well, followed with the 3M pad they sale at the auto store.. Its been good to go with no leaking and 100 shot for a year now!

 

cool now i know what i will use. I thought it had to be smooth as hell. but i am old school new to the ls1. and it seems the more i search the less i know.

 

Are you referring to a 'tac cloth' used when doing paint/body work on a vehicle that has been stripped down to bare metal?

 

The 3M soft bristle round pad you put in a drill. Its made out of some rubberish kind of material.. I dont know the name of it just saw a guy use it before on this site and it works pretty well.

 

Hey how hard do you have to push down on your angled cutter to cutt the Eyebrow? Is it pretty slow going? And also, how do you end up getting all of the debris out of the cylinder's?

Lane

 

Throw some duct tape over the cylinde that you are doing. Put the old gasket on, slap the cutting head on, cut some piston off, pull the cutting head, vacum up all the debris inside the old gasket and above the tape, measure, and repeat.

 

I made the first cut turning the tool by hand with a tap wrench, and even then it didn't take very long to achieve desired depth. You don't have to push hard, you're only cutting aluminum. Since I didn't have a right angle or close quarters drill, I ended up doing the rest of the cuts with an air ratchet to speed up the process.That worked pretty good...slow rpm, torque limited, and provided a good feel of the cutting action.

The only notable thing I noticed about cutting...is when you first start the cut, since you're cutting in at an angle, the tool tends to dig in and bind up...hard...to the point you cannot turn it anymore. Although it's probably not best for the life of the tool, I found by starting the initial cut by running the tool backwards (ccw) by hand for the first few turns it helped get by that problem, once the tool was "in" and began cutting a flat surface, it then turned smoothly.

As for chip removal, I used a small shop vac with a tip that tapered down to about a pencil-sized opening. After each cut, I pulled the head off, and vac'd out the chips (which is more like dust), and checked the depth. After doing a couple cyls, you learn to gauge the depth of cut easily just by looking at the width of the eyebrow.

It really is pretty easy. Just take your time on the first cut, get a feel for the tool and the rate of material removal, and although still a little tedious with the on/off action of the head, you'll find it goes pretty quickly.

Just be very meticulous in cleanup and spin the motor over several times, cleaning/wiping out each cyl when the piston is down, and make absolutely sure you got all the chips out.

 

ok thanks man, appriciate the reply

 

I've got a question. Can you take a junked cylinder head and cut off like two and a half cylinders so it's easier to put on and off? All you really need at one time is the one cylinder bore, so having the other three just makes it more difficult to pull and re-install the head, especially those of us with head studs and f-bodies.

 

You could...but remember there are two alignment roll pins pressed into the block in the outer head boltholes on the bottom row.
I'm not sure if all the head boltholes in the head are large enough to accommodate these. If they are, then no problem...if not, you'd just have to bore out the other lower bolthole in the "single cyl head" you created until it slid over the roll pin.

 

Damn I wish I had a vette...long time since ive seen #7/8 that good.

 

It's a 3M rolock scotch disc. They come in all sorts of sizes and color. The color indicates the coarseness of it from fine to course.
I use them in my body shop all the time.

On a side note, I wet sanded my deck surface on the block with 1000 grit for an ultra fine finish for sealing. And used copper gasket spray on the cometic .040" gaskets.

Also for some of you wondering. I fly cut mine to .145". I know that's a ton. But I've had no problems. And I can fit any cam size I want with a 58cc head and a .040" gasket. Just thought I would throw that out there for you guys.

 

I used the same and went with a .040" gasket. No leaking. The pic looks worst then what it really was.

 

I was one of the ones wondering

I kept referring to your pics, then looking at my cuts, then measuring, then comparing again, measuring again, and finally thinking...damn, he cut his deep.

 

Here are a few pics from when I cut mine to compare to. And the cutting tools in the head. I hope this helps.