I have nothing but time on my hands right now & i figured learning something new would be time well spent, i want to learn how to do my own porting. So for people reading this that know how to do porting, when you 1st started what helped you get the hang of it & is there and specific tools you recommend for the job? My 1st project i plan on is porting a TPI base & plenum. I figured that would be a good way to start out & is also something i need done. So if you wouldn't mind i'm really serious about learning this so can you guys give me some pointers & an over all idea of how to do it? Thanks.

 

Dir grinder. An electric will work but it's heavy and bulky. An air die grinder is small and light however you need a big enough air compressor to keep up with it's demand. A dremal tool isn't good enough to do the job.

A selection of carbide bits. They come in different lengths and shapes.

Once you have all that, it's just a matter of smoothing out and grinding away the port walls to improve airflow. This isn't an easy or quick job. Expect to spend 1-2 hours on each port. To do a proper port job, the ports should be flow tested so that each one flows the same.

Doing some minor cleanup and polishing work is easy but once to realize how much work is involved to do a full port, you'll understand why a proper P&P job costs so much. Buying a set of CNC ported heads is will worth the investment.

Porting aluminum heads is easier but you need a different type of carbide bit. It's also a lot easier to screw up the heads.

 

Alright so that air die grinder sounds a lot better to use then, Yeah i heard it's very time consuming and how would you test the ports, like what would i need to use for that? yeah i know it's a lot of grinding & everything has to be on point or it makes a big difference. Yeah when i get heads i'll probably go with the AFR 195's i've only heard good things about them and most of the TPI set ups i've seen doing the high numbers are running AFR's. I was just thinking of match porting my base & plenum to some Accel runners. When it comes down to porting out a TPI base, Is that something really complex as far as a port job goes or would it be good for someone starting out?

 

Doing a basic clean up isn't too serious. Port match the gaskets, bowl blend and make it all nice and smooth. Something like that won't need to be port flowed but also won't provide huge gains for the amount of work involved.

 

-Lots of criticism from a well known head designer. Lots lol

-Many trips to the flow bench youll learn lots there

-Turning a nice casting into junk

-Spending about a grand in basic tools/materials go from there. I probably got OCD and bought more than is necessary to do one job though.

-And a whole lot of $ in flow bench time as many times I walked away dissappointed with the results


Most porters wont tell you a thing for a few reasons...one is you cant simply say do this here do that there it isnt really accurate. So its tough to get information that really works.

Google Larry Meaux , David Vizard, Darrin Morgan Joe Mondello. There are some nice how to vids and books out there to get started with. Its a long learning curve.

-make friends with someone wtih a flowbench. Do one intake port one exhaust...maybe they will work with you on price. Then duplicate best you can. IF theres a few cfm difference between cyls and there will dont worry about it.

Watching stuff on youtube willl only get you in trouble as 99% of it is false information. At least you can learn what not to do lol

Its always fun and ambitious to DIY but some things are better to just pay someone if you can.