DIY Head Porting
Thread Starter
TECH Regular
Joined: Dec 2005
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From: Mechanicsville, Va
DIY Head Porting Ok after reading up on this alot I think I might go ahead and do it. My question is will this be worth the time and money. I have a spare set of lt1 heads around the house so all I will have to pay for is the grinding material. Also a valve job and the straightness of the deck. I plan on gasket matching the exhaust and intakes sides and smoothing out the bowl. Also gasket matching the intake. After all of this I will run 1.6 rr as well. Do you think I will find and noticable gains or should I just save my money and time?
-Thanks Brandon
-Thanks Brandon
just do some lite porting, blend the bowls, smooth the chambers, gasket match them to intake and exhaust and smooth out the casting bumps and you will be close to LT4 head flow numbers. If you do heavy porting without a flow testing the heads you might as well do it in the dark.
I agree with luckyou03. Most of the guys who specailze in LT1 head porting have a lot of research and development into making the most out of them. Along with the expensive equipment to do the job right. Brandon, I'm not going to try and talk you out of what you are doing. If you feel confident enough to do the job, go for it. If it were me I would save the money and have Lloyd or AI do the heads.
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Just to jump in here but I also just ported my nephews motor (not LT1) and I have more then everything to do the job (tools,)
but for the price and everything A.I. did on my heads you can not beat the price and workmans ship. everyhthing on my heads are new, bigger, every surface was milled,flowed,cc. combustion chamber, bee hive springs, I mean for all the work they did and for the price I wasn't going to do it my self..........I did port match the intake only because of shipping but if iI had to it over again I would have AI do the port matching to.........
My next project car ( Camaro stroked LT1 ) I want the 190 cc pakage..
If you do it your self good luck and it will be fun and self gratification, I always feel like that when I do my own work...
I rebuilt My tranny, and made all my own suspenion.ect,ect,
but for the price and everything A.I. did on my heads you can not beat the price and workmans ship. everyhthing on my heads are new, bigger, every surface was milled,flowed,cc. combustion chamber, bee hive springs, I mean for all the work they did and for the price I wasn't going to do it my self..........I did port match the intake only because of shipping but if iI had to it over again I would have AI do the port matching to.........
My next project car ( Camaro stroked LT1 ) I want the 190 cc pakage..
If you do it your self good luck and it will be fun and self gratification, I always feel like that when I do my own work...
I rebuilt My tranny, and made all my own suspenion.ect,ect,
Thread Starter
TECH Regular
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 408
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From: Mechanicsville, Va
Yeah Iam not going to do any heavy porting, Iam just cleaning out the roughness in ports. I have done alot of research and I think I might go ahead and do it. I will keep you guys posted during the project.
-Brandon
-Brandon
Intake side porting, DO NOT TOUCH THE FLOORS, you can smooth them just do not remove material. You can open them up at the edge to gasket match, by try to roll them in within the first 3/8 of an inch.
Exhaust side, same with the floors, don't even bother to gasket match the floors, but you can hog the tops out to a "D" shape all you want.
I did my LS1 (241 castings) and got LS6 numbers out of them
for about 40hrs of work including smooting the bowls, combustion chambers and cleaning them NUMEROUS times. You'll see what I mean when you stick a valve into a guide after washing them 5 times and still feel a little grit 
Worth it if you have them time and if you don't want to spend the money
Exhaust side, same with the floors, don't even bother to gasket match the floors, but you can hog the tops out to a "D" shape all you want.
I did my LS1 (241 castings) and got LS6 numbers out of them
for about 40hrs of work including smooting the bowls, combustion chambers and cleaning them NUMEROUS times. You'll see what I mean when you stick a valve into a guide after washing them 5 times and still feel a little grit Worth it if you have them time and if you don't want to spend the money
Also, while a flow bench can give you flow numbers, velocity is more important than flow, we could all hog out a set of heads for silly numbers but won't perform. That is why touching the floors is a no-no unless you are experienced or run silly cubes.
You can match all around but blend it into the stock FLOOR within 3/8 to 1/2" in from the edge, the rest you can taper back into the bowl. Exhaust side you can go wild on the top side - definately gasket match but be careful to not go further than the gasket. The port will end up looking like a "D" laying on its flat side. On the intake side, I am not sure if the ports are cathedral or not like the LSx heads, but if they are, leave the cathedral opening as is - your injector is introducing fuel there - don't want to screw up the atomization. I'd go easy on the intake side, just smooth any marks, sweep the corners, open up the bowls around the valve guide, etc... - you can go a little more nuts on the exhaust side.
Not touching the floors will ensure that you do not lose velocity.
Not touching the floors will ensure that you do not lose velocity.
Thread Starter
TECH Regular
Joined: Dec 2005
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From: Mechanicsville, Va
OK cool thanks for the information. I think if I do this with pacesetter lt and true dual setup I should see a nice gain in power right? Should I get a custom tune as well after I do all of the work? And after porting the heads should I just get a basic valve job or go with a 3 angle valve job?
-Brandon
-Brandon
