port and polish question?

[mobileaudio25]

Ive purchased a set of aluminum dart shp heads and an edelbrock performer intake manifold with i believe the stock bottom end. Im going to be swapping a top end kit and had a few questions about port and polishing.

It doesn't seem to difficult to smooth out the area with only a dremel tool, is it?
Is the time vs benefit good?

My grandpa said he had done his heads and it just takes a lot of time, what hp gain could be achieved? I have basic machine/mechanic experience and it kind of seems like something that is hard to screw up....

I'm also running a .480 cam lift. thanks, kyle

 

[DRIVEN]

You might do a gasket match where the intake meets the head just for fun. That may not even be necessary. Honestly, unless you have a before and after dyno or flow bench test, you probably won't notice any difference. When I was in school I thought I needed to port a set of heads. I have no clue if I made them better or worse but it felt good to tell all my stupid little buddies that I did it :lol: . I hogged the sh*t out of them and it took forever -- they were old factory iron heads. Most modern heads are more about port velocity than sheer volume anyway. My advice is to just save the time and effort. It sounds like your combination is pretty moderate anyway. Let's assume 300 horsepower. Even if you did everything right and picked up 5 hp that's only a .6% gain. Think you can feel .6% improvement in the seat of your pants?

 

[mobileaudio25]

Yeah, I understand what your saying. I've read, which might be misleading that it can add between 5-20 hp depending on your setup. if its 5 or 10 I honestly wont even worried about it, but if were talking 20 hp I'm in ! how long/hard was it for you to do the port job, it being your first time?

 

[DRIVEN]

At the time I worked at my uncle's shop. I had a good pneumatic grinder and a large selection of bits along with a commercial grade compressor. After the rough grinding was done I followed it up with sanding drums. I worked a couple hours at a time for a couple weeks and had probably 12-15 hours total. Not sure exactly. It was many, many tears ago. Like I said earlier, I hogged the sh*t out of them and have no clue if I actually improved actual flow numbers. I know that I made a huge mess and probably shortened the lifespan of the compressor and grinder. I remember having really cold fingers too. But, I got to brag to my friends about my "ported and polished" heads . They probably weren't half as impressed as I'd like to think.

 

[Smokes442]

Ive purchased a set of aluminum dart shp heads and an edelbrock performer intake manifold with i believe the stock bottom end. Im going to be swapping a top end kit and had a few questions about port and polishing.

It doesn't seem to difficult to smooth out the area with only a dremel tool, is it?
Is the time vs benefit good?

My grandpa said he had done his heads and it just takes a lot of time, what hp gain could be achieved? I have basic machine/mechanic experience and it kind of seems like something that is hard to screw up....

I'm also running a .480 cam lift. thanks, kyle

My opinion, I'd leave them be, you can do more harm then good if your not sure what to do, with that mild of a cam & stock bottom end your going to have all the head you'll ever need OOTB "I'm sure you won't hear that phrase too often 😀 ", port/gasket matching doesn't amount to much gain anyways, its in the bowl area that counts, so the valves need to be removed, then you chance nicking the seat & there goes the valve job, A dremel won't do much of anything, you need a larger high speed grinder, with the proper bits, I'd just drop them on & call it good. 8)

 

[JRG53]

Get a Victor Jr intake, and take that and the heads to a machine shop and get them to port and polish and match the 2. It'll make good power. However, power = $$$$$.