How do I port and polish a cylinder head??

[capri.kid87]

Hi all,

 

Ok so I got a 2 litre pinto head (spare) I've stripped it and de-coked it now how do I go about porting and polishing it? I have no clue and dont really know where to look.

 

How easy/hard is it? how long could it take? what do I need? any do's and dont's????

 

Please any points, advise and instructions welcome.

 

Ant (sorry if this is in the wrong place)

[w p e]

somethings are beast left to people who know what there doing.

[surrey_100e]

get yourself a dremel and go nuts, but as wpe says, somethings are best left to the experts

[Beakster]

You can have a shot at it. Its fun and you can make some small gains.

 

Like WPE said though, you really need to know exactly what you are doing or have a flow bench to hand to get the most out of it.

 

I did mine just for fun, without having ever done it before. The standard carb pinto head flows quite badly. There is a step just before the valve that really needs smoothing down. I believe this is the main difference in terms of flow between the carb and injection heads.

 

Have a look at this diagram. The big black bit at bottom left is the step I'm talking about:

 

 

I did mine with a Dremel, but really you want a air die grinder and compressor. If you just remove the metal where highlited on that diagram you cant go wrong really.

 

Here's some tips:

 

-Be careful of the valve seats and be sure to lap the valves in when you are done.

-Don't remove any material from the inlet ports not shown in the diagram. The ports are already big enough, and don't try and make them smooth, the roughness helps the atomisation of fuel.

-Don't bother with the combustion chambers, the only advantage of polishing these is to prevent carbon build up. Not worth the hassle, even though it looks nice.

-You can open up the exhaust ports a little bit, but be careful as they are quite close to the water jacket. But its worth trying to get as much carbon out of them as possible.

 

Here's a pic of mine before I put it back on:

 

 

[GJUK]

somethings are beast left to people who know what there doing.

 

That's no fun.

 

I mean, you have to start some where.

 

I bolloxed up a pinto head I can't find the post on it though, it was a good few years ago and the guys on turbo sport gave me grief about it lol. That was nothing though, cutting the roof off a car got me the name sun roof boi.

 

Anyway, have fun!

[w p e]

somethings are beast left to people who know what there doing.

 

That's no fun.

 

I mean, you have to start some where.

 

I bolloxed up a pinto head I can't find the post on it though, it was a good few years ago and the guys on turbo sport gave me grief about it lol. That was nothing though, cutting the roof off a car got me the name sun roof boi.

 

Anyway, have fun!

 

my point exactly. some things are best left to the pro's

[Mexico]

yeah, i now where your coming from wpe but at the end of the day, the pro's started sumwhere 2 and i bet they bolloxed up a few things too like we all have ...

 

i say give it ago but read a bit into it first and take your time. Don't go expecting too much ... i mean your not going to get the same out of the head as if you did take it to a pro as in the end it comes down to experience and personal skills.

[sampedlar06]

I wouldnt mind a go at this... obviously it wont be as good as a professional job.... no where near to be honest but it looks fun and at he moment i only have enough space to keep an engine to play with

[ASBO CAPRI]

Hi all,

 

Ok so I got a 2 litre pinto head (spare) I've stripped it and de-coked it now how do I go about porting and polishing it? I have no clue and dont really know where to look.

 

How easy/hard is it? how long could it take? what do I need? any do's and dont's????

 

Please any points, advise and instructions welcome.

 

Ant (sorry if this is in the wrong place)

 

I'd say if your trying to get some extra power on the cheap I'd get that head of yours skimmed while the valves are out. Pintos love a bit of extra compression. I wouldn't atempt porting unless your really sure of what your doing. Its all too easy to go into a water jacket or make the flow rate even worse.

[capri.kid87]

OK cool cheers for all the advise and warning, I am gonna try it I have two spare heads which only cost £5 so not alot to lose.

 

Yeah I've been told alot not to do the inlet and leave it rough and as it happens a work m8 is digging out a step by step "porting for dummies" book so I'll give it a go and we'll see wot happens.

 

Thanx again guys.

 

Ant

[jimbo]

OK cool cheers for all the advise and warning, I am gonna try it I have two spare heads which only cost £5 so not alot to lose.

 

Yeah I've been told alot not to do the inlet and leave it rough and as it happens a work m8 is digging out a step by step "porting for dummies" book so I'll give it a go and we'll see wot happens.

 

Thanx again guys.

 

Ant

 

That's the spirit. I've got a spare head which I'm gonna have a go at one day. You gotta start somewhere and a cheap head is probably the best place.

 

It's not like you're gambling with a pre-crossflow head or anything

[bortaf]

download and have a good read of these

free but may take a while to download

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/220076185/H ... VIZARD.pdf

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/219665375/P ... uining.pdf

[GJUK]

Don't grind away the valve seats...

 

I say this, because this is what I did exactly with a pinto head I had.

 

Whoops.

[chunkys mk1]

have a go on a scrap head first

[GJUK]

have a go on a scrap head first

 

Yeah, you can have my for postage...

 

I coudl get it to you special delivery for about £400.

[jamesmk1]

i have a pinto head that has had work done, i can send you some pic's if you want or your welcome to come and have a look

[w p e]

so to get this straight. get a head start grinding away till what? or when? if it is or was then why aint everyone doing heads and earning out of it? any body can grind away at a head and most will or have fooked more then a few up beleive i know as ive had to put them right. once this head is done get someone to put it on a mflow bench and see how you.ve done and take note of the hours you put in and wasted

[GJUK]

I've read your posts in relation to people asking about 'how do I' posts. You're quick to tell people don't do it, give it to the 'experts', pay them and get it done properly.

 

Sure, I agree with you to a degree, if perhaps they were building a race car and wanted the maximum performance from their engine/hardware.

 

But, lets face it. This chap wants to learn, the hard way (as many of us do, myself included), how to do something himself. It seems he has time, the equipment and want for information.

 

Maybe he will release 1 bhp, maybe he'll scrap the head. Why not point him in the right direction rather than 'shooting him down' before he's tried?

 

Cheers,

 

Jon

[evil knievel]

so to get this straight. get a head start grinding away till what? or when? if it is or was then why aint everyone doing heads and earning out of it? any body can grind away at a head and most will or have fooked more then a few up beleive i know as ive had to put them right. once this head is done get someone to put it on a mflow bench and see how you.ve done and take note of the hours you put in and wasted

 

Chill out mate, it's not a big deal. It's not exactly like he's stealing your business is it!

[capri.kid87]

cheers guys seems I've opend a real debate.

 

Yeah I got the time and yeah my dad has the tools and the skill, He's build sevrall rods for himslelf and others, has built countless chassis and engines, has built a few drags oh and in 92 build a land speed car and fle to the salt flats with it and competed. And is a mechanic through and through and was trained by Ford

 

My Father in law is also a mechanic and my uncle builds car that have graced the covers of custom car.

 

So I think with them watching over me I can get it done. I would really like to do this so I can in a way show them I dont need to rely on them to get my car done and I can learn how to do the work myself.

 

I will let you know how the work goes once its been done.

 

Again thanks for all the advise.

[sambo]

All i would say is you'll need a flow bench. How would you know that you are getting each port equal? If you havent done it before you could be miles out on different cylinders.

Might be worth doing once you have done the job.

 

Or even build your own flow-bench. Thats been done before quite cheaply.

[livewire7116]

somethings are beast left to people who know what there doing.

 

this is good advice, a wrongly ported head will lose you power

[w p e]

so to get this straight. get a head start grinding away till what? or when? if it is or was then why aint everyone doing heads and earning out of it? any body can grind away at a head and most will or have fooked more then a few up beleive i know as ive had to put them right. once this head is done get someone to put it on a mflow bench and see how you.ve done and take note of the hours you put in and wasted

 

Chill out mate, it's not a big deal. It's not exactly like he's stealing your business is it!

 

i dont need to chill im stating a fact. if i was'nt then there would be no firms needing to do heads as if it was as easy as it sounds everyone would do there own.

[evil knievel]

so to get this straight. get a head start grinding away till what? or when? if it is or was then why aint everyone doing heads and earning out of it? any body can grind away at a head and most will or have fooked more then a few up beleive i know as ive had to put them right. once this head is done get someone to put it on a mflow bench and see how you.ve done and take note of the hours you put in and wasted

 

Chill out mate, it's not a big deal. It's not exactly like he's stealing your business is it!

 

i dont need to chill im stating a fact. if i was'nt then there would be no firms needing to do heads as if it was as easy as it sounds everyone would do there own.

 

You do. I never said you weren't stating a fact. This is an open forum where every one can express their own views and I respect that you have that view, being a professional.

 

My point was, if one guy in a shed fooks up his head, is it your problem?

 

I'll leave you to work the answer out for yourself.

[Toby]

You can have a shot at it. Its fun and you can make some small gains.

 

Like WPE said though, you really need to know exactly what you are doing or have a flow bench to hand to get the most out of it.

 

I did mine just for fun, without having ever done it before. The standard carb pinto head flows quite badly. There is a step just before the valve that really needs smoothing down. I believe this is the main difference in terms of flow between the carb and injection heads.

 

Have a look at this diagram. The big black bit at bottom left is the step I'm talking about:

 

 

I did mine with a Dremel, but really you want a air die grinder and compressor. If you just remove the metal where highlited on that diagram you cant go wrong really.

 

Here's some tips:

 

-Be careful of the valve seats and be sure to lap the valves in when you are done.

-Don't remove any material from the inlet ports not shown in the diagram. The ports are already big enough, and don't try and make them smooth, the roughness helps the atomisation of fuel.

-Don't bother with the combustion chambers, the only advantage of polishing these is to prevent carbon build up. Not worth the hassle, even though it looks nice.

-You can open up the exhaust ports a little bit, but be careful as they are quite close to the water jacket. But its worth trying to get as much carbon out of them as possible.

 

Here's a pic of mine before I put it back on:

 

 

 

This seems like sound advice and quite a good job with limited resorces. I would have liked to have seen 3 angle seats (and on the valves) and as said a head skim, if you know how to measure the compression get it up to a starting position of around 10.5:1

 

As you have said yourself get a book. Vizard is a good technical author.

 

Get some pic's up as you go.