Head Work! Ported/polished?????

[76Tahiti460]

So I am trying to decide whether or not to port/polish my heads....What is port/polish? You here it so much, everyone seems to do it, but what does something like this cost. I have a 460 FORD BB and I have the cheesey heads on mine, you know which ones I am talking about, the ones that need roller rocker conversions, large CC's 92+++. I know the DOVE-C's flow better, but can I massage mine a little better in the exhaust passage for increased flow, and maybe smooth out the combustion chambers, 3 or 5 angle valve seats...Do 5 angle seats exist? Please educate me on this, and let me know how I could better go about this project, because if cost more than Aluminum heads then...well we all know what we would purchase first then. My heads are raw right now, and need new valves. So along with roller rockers, studs, guideplates, etc....should I go with stainless steel? Will my motor ever benefit from such a set-up. My cam will compliment my heads as well as the tunnel ram I am attempting to set-up, or at least think I might set-up,Hahaaa. How could my heads better my motor but still look reasonable on the money clip?

[jroos]

I thought you said you didn`t have pistons yet. Well try and find some decent heads in the junk yard and have them reworked. I don`t know what cam specs you have but if its not BIG ENOUGH, port and polishing will infact hurt. On the other hand with a ram and high compression, now its definatly ready for the 750`s. You said you spent money for roller rockers, keep the heads buy high compression pistons, shave the heads all the way, your machinist will know how much, and have the block decked. this will bump compression up as well as rpm capability. This motor will run on the cool side so the warp factor is not that relevant. You will have to machine the intake and probably slot some bolt holes, but the machinist will do it and its fairly inexpensive. Hell i would say to run stock cast pistons and do a mild port job, taking note on the exhaust ports for bb Fords, run with the setup from Summit (600`s) and you will be rockin` with cash still in your pocket for a keg to stick in the garage when you wax your rig. Just my 2 cents. Remember to shave the heads, the ones you have are a dime a hundred.

[76Tahiti460]

Funny you say dime a hundred, because I bough some extra (now two sets in my garage) off ebay for $30 crack free guarnteed. No I haven't bought pistons because I don't know if my block is crack free yet (waiting to give my machine shop everything at once), my bore job is going to be 0.060 for sure because it's already 0.030, but I was leaning towards 10.5-1 anyhow for pistons, and my shop said they could match the set-up, how much head shaveing verses dome material on pistons, thanks for the advice bro....The keg is open to all! See you at the river...

[FoMoCo]

I have an 18ft Kachina that I just got done putting a 429BBF in! The motor sports C9VE Heads similar to DOVE's with a mild port and polish, and 2.19 intake valves, 1.76 Exhaust valves! I Am running 11:1 Compresssion with no problems! I also run a Wieand Tunnel Ram with 2 600 CFM Vac Sec Holleys! Don't waste your effort on those smog heads! Just find a set of DOVE's or C9VE's and go with the bigger vavles and bowl porting! I would not skimp on compression or valves, go with at least 10.5:1 and run a good quality stainless valves. I was told to run 2 750DP's on my motor by MPD but I could not justify spending over a $1000 on carbs and linkage, SO I spent $440 !With a little tunning they will work good! Good Luck!

[fryzll]

Hey 76Tahiti460, dont bother spending money on new heads, just have the exaust restricters ground out and have them clean the ports up. The CompCams rocker conversion works excellent on the positive stop heads. Dont worry about milling the heads and decking the block, just use TRW forged piston pt# L2404F, they have a dome which when used 97cc chambered heads should give you about 9.5 to 9.75 compresion give or take and w/ that cam you should have at least .100 piston to valve clearence. I just built the same engine for a buddy of mine w/ a edelbrock victor 460 single plane manifold and a 750. so just use what you have and im sure you will be happy w/ the results.
Chris

[jroos]

FoMoCo, I`m running with Dove heads(emission humps i grounded out and slight port job). I `m new to fords and am running stock logs. I too will be running a tunnel with twin 750`s. Only reason is because I have a 4150 already that i scarfed from my Monza(350, 437 hp, pump gas, no juice, ps,pb,ac). 600`s would work better but I`m gonna run 2 two " spacers for the look. Lunati for jets, and drop in roller fulcrums 460. Stock compression no bore. Unilite, High Fire 4c. I`m curious to your thought on my spacers? I`m currently running dual plane, 750, 2". 1st " is 4 hole, 2nd " is dual plane. I can`t remember who told me to go with 4 hole 2" for signal. I would think that if its hard to over carb a jet, then my current spacer design would work great for high hp purposes(because of transition from 4 hole to dual plane to open plenum in tunnel)without losing any bottom. I will not sacrifice idle quality. Any thoughts?

[FoMoCo]

I would not think a spacer is nessasary on a tunnel ram because its already up high enough and theres no heat way up there! Have you ever seen what a tunnel ram does on a boat on an 85 degree day? it geta all frosty on top, if you feel it, its cold to the touch! Plus the Tunnel ram already has a high RPM band so why raise it! I hope this helps!

[TX19]

76...be careful on the .060" overbore. I have seen problems on several occassions with .060" over on 460 blocks - not necessarily when boring, but when run hard, I have seen some cylinders crack - it makes a big mess and somtimes a hole in the bottom of the boat. I have also seen some blocks
(69 and 70 model 429's) bored as much as .090" over with no problems, but I think that is the exception, not the rule.
Sonic checking the block is a good investment
before you bore it.

[058]

I've seen some early blocks take up to .160" overbore [total bore 4.520"] but sonic checking is a must to check for core shift. 3 angle valve jobs are the industry standard, 5 angle jobs are rare, few shops have the cutters or the stones to cut 5 angles, 75-60-45 [seat]-30-15 deg. but it can be done. If you do the 5 angle have the intake valve back-cut. It will help low lift flow. Head casting are still easy to find, just look for C8-C9 or D0 casting numbers. They have 75cc chambers 2.09" intake-1.66" ex. and work ok to about 5500 rpm. If you install the bigger valves 2.19" in. and 1.74" ex. and do the usual port work on the exhaust port then they should be good to about 6-6.5K rpm. Don't bother with the 2.25" in. as the stock port won't support that size.

[froggystyle]

I don't know for sure how Fords do it, but if you shave the head on a Chevy or Mopar, you can take 1/3 of the shaved amount off of the intake face of the head and use a stock intake manifold.
Find out from a ford guy first though. You can usually tell who they are because of the greasy fingernails! hehe http://free.***boat.net/ubb/tongue.gif JUST KIDDING, JUST KIDDING! Gimme a break here guys....