Can someone recomend to me a place That will port heads good/cheap? I thought about attempting this myself...then I realized I wasn't prepared to front the cost of new heads when I screw them up Anyway I'm in socal. It would be nice to drive to the shop for the porting; but sending them out by mail will be fine also.

Who do you guys recomend?
-Aydin

p.s. I thought this would be the correct bord to post on...but move if it's not.

 

I have no idea where to bring it to, but I'm going to port my LG4's heads while I have the motor out... I was curious if you were going to have your stock heads ported? I dont think it would be worth the money to have someone else port those stockers... after they port it out to as much as it can go it'll still only breath a little better than some other cheaper heads, and cost twice as much from the speed shop.

I figure if I screw up the LG4's heads while porting them, I can go to a junkyard and get another set for ~50 dollars for the pair.

 

I don't think good and cheap go together very well in any setting. Years ago when I lived in Oxnard, I used to go to West coast machine near 5 points. I think the best is guy is in NJ. Gessler. Its all he does and he puts 70s Buicks in the 10 sec bracket with factory heads, intake, and exhaust manifolds. Its all he does. Search the web, and he'll definetly come up. Not ultra cheap, though.

P.S. How come you haven't put a set of those 500 dollar chevy vortec heads on that 305? Isn't that the best cheap upgrade without increasing displacement? I heard tbi 305 heads are the WORST for performance. Not sure.

 

Well that does make sense....I don't know what, on average the cost is for porting...Yes I was talking about my stock (L03) heads, World torqer heads are ~$780 at summit... The other option I am considering. So i figured spending $200-$350 on the porting. Ya? But the world heads are good, and when I end up killing the L03, (153,000 Mi.) I want to bring the heads to the 350 that will go in.

So here's another Q. How will ported stock heads compare to the World head?
-Aydin

 

Kris, I like that also. Maybe I'll just go with the vortec's.

 

I'm afraid everything I've heard says that there's nothing you can do to your particular heads to help. Something about passages being too small to port without breaking in the water jacket. Those Vortec heads are 519 bucks at summit and they fit 350s, What about them?

 

Vortecs also require a specific manifold, so add at least another $200 to the total cost of things.

I still think doing a set of 416s, 081s or 601s is the answer everyone is looking for, at least if money is tight. For $400 total you can have Vortec performance with none of the extraneous expenses associated with them.

Follow the link at the end of my sig.

 

I thought I saw an article in Car Craft where they slotted the holes in their conventional manifold, cut some 1" pieces of 3/8 pipe, 45ed one end and bolted them up. Or was that just the old style manifold to center bolt heads?

 

No, those are non-Vortec mods.

 

Vortecs aren't legal on a passenger car in California. Those who have gotten by didn't get them passed as Vortecs.

081 castings would be good flowing and bolt right back on. About the only people you're going to find to do the porting will be speed shops. The price you pay to get basic porting done will typically hurt the wallet. The chances of messing up the job yourself is minimal (if I can do it, most anyone can).

A few years ago, Popular Hot Rodding magazine (and a sister publication or two) had an article comparing World S/R Torquer 305's to 3-angle valve job factory heads on a TPI engine. They had the Torquers "pocket ported" by some shop in SoCal, I forget the name of it. I believe they quoted $120 for the job - pretty low, I'd say. It's about a 3-5 hour job, so that's not a lot of money for precision hand work for that length of time.

 

You can get significantly more flow out of the 305 heads, the size of the port is not the limiting factor really, but that they change area too much and have a lot of really bad transitions that hurt flow. For a basically stock 305, you want to have small ports but better flow, because the whole package is tuned for torque. Large port high flowing heads will be a mismatch to the rest of the package, you will stall the flow at low rpms and the rest of the package will completely kill off any high end power you might have had from them.

The 305 heads' combustion chamber is dated, the valves are shrouded by the smallish bore, and honestly, I hate porting on Iron heads. But depending on what else you have done to the car, what you intend to do, and your budget, will depend on weather the stock heads will be better ported or dumpsterized. The engine works as a system, and it all has to be either balanced to put the power in a particular place in the poweband, or very cleverly mismatched to give you a better spread of power.

 

If you are going to pay someone to port stock heads, it isn't worth it. Porting most factory castings is only worth the effort if you can do the work yourself.

Besides, you are talking about tbi heads, which have a swirl in the intake port. You will be wasting your time and money if you do anything to them. They will not flow for **** because of the way they are cast. Use them until you have another set of heads. Then throw them away as far as you can.

 

It's settled then. I'm going with the vortec's. Thanks for the direction!

 

Vortecs on your 305? What size combustion chambers?

 

64 or 67cc...but I'm sure open to suggestions

 

overkill?

 

Enjoy doing all that work and spending all that money, and then being unable to drive the car because it won't pass smog.

You'd be wise to un-hook yourself from the buzzword, take a step back, and use some common sense; before throwing away a bunch of money on something you can't use.

 

Go back to my other post and read what I said to. It is the answer to your problems. The 081s are perfect for both flow and proper visual inspection at the smog shop.

As RB83L69 says, you are getting hyper over all this and need to settle down and dummy up.

 

My car dosn't pass smog as it is now, but thanks for the concern
it's a late-night fun machine... I'll get anything that improves performance, and fits my budget.

 

I dont think that I would put those on my 305. You are taking off 58cc heads and replacing them with 64cc. YOu will totally screw your compression ratio to hell. They are not what you need at all.

Listen to RB, what he has said is fact. Either get one of the casting numbers mentioned and get them ported or get a set of worlds. Money spent on "vortec" heads is money wasted for you.

 

So this would be .... a nice, expensive lawn ornament? You can invite your friends over and say "Next time they catch it on the street they're going to impound it and crush it, but hey, just look at those Vortec heads!!"? Better you than me. Doesn't sound like you need anybody's help here for much, least of all mine.

 

Damn someone's got a grumpy attitude I did'nt know that that little increse in cc's would kill my comp. ratio. Thanks ljnowell. I want heads that will offer a performance benifit now, on the 305, and be transferrable to a 350 for later.

My L03 is well worn at 153,000 miles, but runs very strong. I know the arguement about not wasting $$$ on a 305, just get a 350, but it's hard for me to just junk an engine that works perfectly fine. Maybe i'll leave it is and blow it up with a 125-150 shot of nos, then build a quality 350. So I was just looking at the different options, one of wich was getting or porting the heads.

Thanks anyway

 

And don't trip, i've already gotten my lic. suspended for 6 months, (speeding) but no worries with the SMOG....