Ported Heads?
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From: Fredericksburg Va.
Ported Heads? I’ m at another crossroad with my build. We took the engine out last Wednesday and started tearing the motor down yesterday after work. My mod list is: LS1 intake with adapter, rockers/rods/springs, cam, headers and N2O wet kit. Money is tight (school teacher), still need to spend money on: gaskets, exhaust shop (new flex pipe and hooking headers to cat back) and professional tune. So here are my questions: should I do anything to my heads? I am staying with an ls4 tb so what is the point of porting if the choke point is before the port? Are there different degrees of porting? What is the average cost of a port? I looked around last night and saw a few ported 5.3 heads from the truck community for sale. Thanks guys
Just have them freashed up. I had had mine hot tanked, decked, and had the valves and seats restored back to stock specs. The only upgrades added were viton valve seals and new LS7 springs with titanium retainers. The valves were back cut too.
Make sure you clean out the engine block head bolt holes with a ARP chaser, or grind three vertical slots into a stock bolt. Very important.
I bought all of my gaskets and bolts from http://www.gmpartsgiant.com/ Great pricing!
Make sure you clean out the engine block head bolt holes with a ARP chaser, or grind three vertical slots into a stock bolt. Very important.
I bought all of my gaskets and bolts from http://www.gmpartsgiant.com/ Great pricing!
You could port them, but I would just mill them for a bump in compression and call it a day. Keep in mind that means you pretty much have to run 93 or 91 (for the Californa people 
) all the time if you don't do so already.
) all the time if you don't do so already. Yep, going to a cam with any amount of overlap will rob you of some power without bumping the compession by other means...
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From: Farmington Hills, MI
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TECH Apprentice
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Joined: Jun 2009
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From: Fredericksburg Va.
heads I hear you guys. I am moving really slow on this issue. Talked to a couple of shops, they all have different opinions, kind of like you guys. A few days ago I meet up with this guy who has been building engines for decades and he took a look at the heads, intake and headers. He has made a few statements but he is holding off until he gets some more info on the exhaust side of the head. One thing I do know is that whatever course I take, it’s going to cost money 
and time. We've been a one car family now for 15 days
and time. We've been a one car family now for 15 days LS1 Tech Stories
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Verdad Gallardo Bamma, is right I just wanted to point a few things out. 1 7/8" headers are overkill and I think that they might be hurting performance with are stock cam and intake.
Please excuse my spelling I'm on my phone lol
What about a reverse split? We're far more intake limited (especially with a LS4/1 intake) than we are on the exhaust side with the huge headers.
LSx motors are seeing really good numbers even with huge reverse splits...
LSx motors are seeing really good numbers even with huge reverse splits...
This is due to LSX heads. They are super resonsive!
