The Hidden Power In Your Cylinder Heads - Detailing For The Home Engine Builder

Would this drastically increase MPG? Sorry I'm new to porting type of stuff.
MPG increase is my only focus.

I’ve been dragging my feet detailing a set of C casting big block Olds because of the investment of time (I don’t have a lot) and subsequently screwing something up lol. I had been leaning towards Edelbrock heads but holy crap they’re expensive, then recently saw they absolutely need a valve job before installing 🤦‍♂️
I just rewatched this vid and am going to take a day off or two to detail those Olds castings.

🌲30🌲

Watching this stuff if fun. But it's kind of like studying dinosaurs. It's fun, but I don't expect to actually ever see one.

That ELEPHANT GRINDER makes me Cringe😣 go to Harbor Freight and get the $30 CHIEF mini air grinder with the RED lever! Way less violent and more controlable..
Open up RIGHT BEHIND the valve seat and knock down the valve stem bosses.

I wouldn’t say a hot spot is undiagnosable. You did diagnose it with everything you did you just didn’t check for it when you did your first head gasket. That was a teachable moment for you. The biggest gain you should see by removing that little bit of material around the valve is unshrouding them and will allow them to breathe better and gain some percentage of HP.

Good lesson for those that don’t know about hot spots and carbon knocking (preignition).

Hey Uncle Tony, How likley is it to find a Set of Factory Big Block heads Small Chamber 200 castings that don't need work as far as bowl blending and what type of performance Possibbly I can get out of them, the 1963 361CID I found in NC has "near Perfect" castings, I mean all they would need is polishing and possibly port matching but the bowls in both intake and exhaust runners are the Sharp Corner and Edge Free from factory. the Machine shop owner said he had never seen it before what are your thoughts.

Thank You Tony
Hello Humans Hello Humans, Reeeeeeeeeee, Stay Awesome, Go Away Now, Keep your dick in a vice, See you Tomorrow, God Speed, God Bless

Excellent talk

You're exactly the shop teacher I needed, back then

Hey do you have a email I could ask you a few questions please? It’s about a TA 340 that’s been sitting

Back in the late 70's I built a slant 6 for a 63 Dart GT. The ports on that head were horrid. Had fins all over, looked like the sand cores had cracked.
Cleaned all that up, made a world of difference.

I used to have a '65 383. YOU'RE HOPPING UP 516 HEADS???????? SMALL VALVE 516'S????? I can't remember if I still have the heads out there.

I don't know if this would apply to cast iron heads but back in time I sand blasted a Triumph motorcycle head and got more bottom end out of it than I was ready for. I found out later that micro profiling the walls of the intake, chamber and exhaust caused tiny swirls in the mixture along the outsides of the flow path creating a bearing effect where it would otherwise would have dragged on these surfaces. Have you ever tried this?

About how much HP gain can be made gasket matching and cleaning up ports? I’m getting an Edelbrock Performer RPM and AFR heads for my 67 Cougar with a Factory 390. I believe these parts combined with the correct cam with roller conversion, a set of JBK tri y headers should get me in the 425 HP and 500-525 FT Torque range. (Hopefully) im also converting to a Tremek 6 Speed with 3.73 gearing. Im not building a 1/4 mile car. Im building a GT touring.

I ported FE heads for years. Less is more. As you said gasket matching and squareing is vital on the FE. I used to flow the two together and the blueprinting is worth a huge amount. The tall 352-390 head is great.put the biggest intake valves in you can get, and a 2.15-2.19 intake valve fits a .030 over 390. On the Low Riser style head, which the 352/390 heads made until 65 were cast almost the same as the 427 LR but they cast the heads to allow the bigger valve on the intake side by casting moving the valve over .080 toward the bore wall on the exhaust side, and you could fly cut the bore,, but the port is plenty as it was. I put a 410 crank in a .030 over 390 block. I used 1.63 exhaust and Iput stepped 11/32 guides in and reduced the bosses as much as I could.. 416 ci, and with the 427 425 hp solid cam, they were eating stuff theoretically shouldn’t be on the same stretch of road and shame them. Just doing what Tony just said. I’m no Keith Craft, but just the basics and the car set up right those 416ci FEs with early 352/390 heads and the 410 Mercury crank was magical. Just good basic stuff and it’s a horse and a third to a half, and I am not bull shitting you. Ford gave you the ingredients but to keep insurance down, you had to make your own stew, and the FE is a stew that can be mighty good !

Thank-you Uncle Tony for taking the time to teach, encourage and mostly inspire all of those who are thinking about doing engine work of any sort, especially the extra bits to be done if you want to take your motor to the next level without breaking the bank.

Don’t you want to leave the intake “rough” !?? To create disturbance for proper even atomization and ignition / combustion!? Exhaust should be as smooth as glass for fastest escape

As always TONY very enlightening and worth every second.

Late 70s and 80s and 90s Ford 460 heads have a large lump sticking down it the top of the exhaust port that is drilled for the air pump injection. If you find a pair with these lumps and they are not drilled, you can grind the lump out and gain a bunch of horse power. And the same heads have large cast areas for the guides that can be cut down to help intake flow.

Mopar big block heads are not that great. Run the Eddy closed chamber aluminums and don’t look back

Have done the same with coffee and cigar.

Using oil with carbide burrs will change your world. Especially with aluminum, oil keeps burrs and stones from gumming up.

Now this is something I need to learn Tony. I have a pair of Pontiac 13 heads that are waiting for me to port. My car is a 1976 Firebird that originally came with a Pontiac 350 2bbl and had a cracked block so my friend had a 400 out of a junk 75 grand prix that was rusted and locked up. The engine shop managed to rebuild the block and get all the rust off and its been 18 years and still running good. Its a near stock rebuild with unported 6X4 heads, SUM-2800 cam stock q jet intake and stock log exhaust manifolds. Lots of torque with okay midrange. The block is a late model 500557 thin wall so I'm leaving it alone I read they don't do well with a lot of power mods. I found a better 400 block from a 1969 grand prix that can take the pressure better. I tore the engine completely down to the bare block and brought it to the engine shop. They reconditioned it really nice. Its ready for all new components I would like to get a forged lighted balanced rotating assembly from Butler. I don't want to stroke it to 461 unless I use bigger chamber heads. The smallest stroker kit is 4" I like it to be a little bit rev happy and not like the 4.5". I bought a pair of reproduction ram air three exhaust manifolds. I will let the cylinder heads decide what cam it wants after I pocket port them. I don't like high stall converters for the street they only work up to 35mph anyway but they are necessary for the dragstrip and they make a car drink gas 100 times worse. Acceleration from 40 to 75 is more fun on the highway. I think a little cam change goes a long way and going from a SUM-2800 to a SUM-2801 can be more change than I imagine. Maybe SUM-2802 might be too much? I'm not trying to outrun a hellcat I know that will never happen in that car. Not with Ram Air three exhaust that will be the pinch. I don't know what cam would work best with those manifolds. I just want to see what I can make it do. I still have to get swirl polished undercut valves. I don't know if a new damper and flexplate comes with the rotating assembly. What a mess. I have read about building a homemade flowbench and I have a collection of old vacuum cleaners. I'm 60 and planning my retirement hahahaha 😆

Actually, Jestuous off of amazon has an awesome 8 or 10 bit set for $40. I am not one to push stuff off of amazon but I am impressed by the quality of these grinder bits.

Great stuff

Omg, do you not have an air compressor??!!?? You are using a cheap harbor frieght electric die grinder? Harbor Frieght sells air die grinders and you buy good, cheap burrs ... c'mon, buy some good stuff that will last. Just buy aftermarket heads and all these issues are solved, less tike spent.

69 Plymouth valiant

I don’t understand why do gasket matching. Matching the ports to some random gasket doesn’t make sense. Far as I know, typical aftermarket gaskets from any era are not cut to blueprint dimensions. I could be convinced the OEM installed gasket is a blueprint dimension.
Port matching makes sense. I don’t have a lot of knowledge on performance builds. But want to learn.

I wish gasket manufacturers would make gaskets with the fire ring that is either trimmable to the bore, or are available with bore size with in .010" of the bores, 4", +.030, .040", .060" ( or more commonly available,) seens sbc gaskets are available in like 4.100, 4.180" or something, what about 265, 283, 305's & 307's with small bores, they need all the help they can get, having a gasket .050" thick, and .150" larger than the bore is really not helping anything, having a soft steel fire ring, with tiny grooves embossed in it, to allow sizing to the bore, using a sanding drum and dremel, just sand to the line, and they will all match, the bores, then on a mild street engine build, the chambers can possibly be matched to the bores, the gasket is basically the bore size, after a port detail, maybe a chamber polish, the engine with stock parts can run better than it ever has! Or make a good riunning slightly modified engine! It couldn't cost that much to make them!

There seems to be an argument regarding port matching exhaust to header and having nothing to prevent reversion....what's your take on this?

You sir are an absolute legend! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge 👍🏻

Is it worth it doing this in a diesel engine for a truck?

port and polish, thanks man. I avoided the mistake of cheap burrs and bought quality. I watch your shows, not once, but several times. love the straight forward no bull teaching, thank you. Elmer

Is gasket matching worth the work. For horsepower?

🍞🧈

Can.....u....please .....electroplate head piston dome......GREEN.

Factory head mistakes or just imperfections.

To my understanding (limited) the body’s serial number doesn’t match the frame serial number. Same thing with the 56 GMC/ Chevy. The cab was replaced years ago. I don’t have a title or Bill of Sale for the cab; only the frame. How do I get this project titled?

I know there are other porting videos out there but it would have been helpful for me to see the "home-builder" technique included in this video (even just a minute or so with explanation). Like I'm wondering do you leave a set of junk valves in the head when you are detailing the bowl? Sure seems like that would be wise, but again a demo would have been nicer. Thanks for the great video series though - overall super helpful for us home boys.

What do you guys think about painted gasket surfaces.

Awesome video! I consider that just plain good engine building techniques. A good cleanup to fix the manufacturing mistakes.

Kuality.
Kontrol.

I'm looking forward to the 4 0 xj build & I wish they were out as I'm currently replacing the rod bearing (spun one) & really want to go through the entire engine as a previous owner neglected the poor thing by evidence if the sludge which I'm guessing is what clogged the pickup leading to the liw oil pressure on a road trip for work & wham-o!

Nick has a 318 with a crank with 4” stroke cam with 520 lift stock heads cast iron exhaust high rise 750 cam csrb. 402 Hp . Wow

"Cannoli shaped" NY Italian reference.

MSC Industrial supply sells some high quality carbides in case anyone is looking.
Graingers are still pretty good little less $. Agree with UT on the cheapie kits. Lots of those kits dont even have the proper ones for messing ith heads. A flame shaped one, an oval for the most part are all you need. 60 or 80 grit cartridge rolls thats it.
I have TONS of ones Ill never use..guess I cant offer them up here without consequence lol
Like to keep a used one of ea that are worn for certain places.

If you buy a high speed grinder thats electric call Foredom and order up a pedal (Speed) control. Have metal...or plastic ones for cheap
High quality so you have lots more control. Less speed=more accuracy less mistakes.

If the 3 inchers arent long enough buy a 6" and cut it down to preferred size that way it wont whip out of round.

Dont cut corners and just do a full porting job.Thats what I do.
Ive been repairing cars and building engines since 1972

Nice!

Installing valve guides are dangerous it could crack the casting and cause big damage