A-429 Motorsports headI have decided to port my set of Ford Motorsports A429 aluminum Cobra Jet heads. I had initially decided against doing it because of the amount of time involved in performing this operation. Porting takes a LONG time (unless you are Supersport who knocked out his set of BBC heads in one afternoon). I will be the first to admit that another part of it was I didn’t exactly know what needed to be done. Anyone can take a grinder to a set of heads but who knows what kind of results they achieve! With cylinder head porting it’s easier to make things flow WORSE then better (Also I don’t have a Superflow flow bench in my garage either). Another part of me also thought that it would be unnecessary because I’m building a blower motor and the blower will force the air through the intake port as opposed to atmospheric pressure. But the Ford exhaust port leaves a little (OK a lot!) to be desired, so I decided to clean up the ports, bowls and combustion chambers. From what I’ve learned from the 460Ford cylinder head mafia is that the port geometry is basically correct, so I don’t need to re-engineer the ports.
My first observation is that these heads have the worst port wall surface finishes that I have ever seen on an aftermarket performance cylinder head. There is casting flash all over the place, and there is a metric ton of material around the valve guides that is not even remotely centered. A majority of my time will be spent in the bowl area trying to fix this critical transition area. Most of the airflow gains will be achieved right there.
Anyway, I started off by purchasing the correct tools for porting aluminum heads.
First of all I purchased an electric grinder. I had initially though I might just use my air grinder because I already had it and it was ready to go. But after researching it on the net I came to the conclusion that the electric grinder was the way to go. First the amount of electricity that I would using powering my 220v air compressor would be MUCH higher then the amount of electricity needed to power an electric grinder. Second is the electric grinder is MUCH more powerful. Actually, I have to be careful with the thing because I could do some SERIOUS damage to these heads if I’m not careful. Anyway, I got this electric grinder from Harbor Freight for $37 shipped to my door (which just the savings in electricity alone from not using the air compressor will pay for it). One thing I did have to deal with by using the electric grinder is how to adjust the motor speed. This grinder has no such control. After jumping on the net again I found an easy solution. I rigged up a dimmer switch and spliced it into an extension cord. BAM, thing works like a charm.
Second, I got a set of burrs that are designed especially for aluminum grinding. I’m sure anyone why has tried to grind on aluminum has seen how the aluminum tends to “gum” up on the bit (or grinding stone). These burrs have less cutting flutes and will not allow this to happen (Tip – keeping oil on the ports and cutting tools helps a lot). The only negative of these burrs is that they are expensive ($60 for the set of 3) and cannot be used on anything else.
Last, I purchased a polishing set that consists of 96 different cartridge rolls of varying sizes and grits. I got this from Summit for $29 and it was a steal in my book. It really does a good job of making the ports professional looking (and hiding all the little mistakes I’ve made so far!).
I'll keep you updated.
My first observation is that these heads have the worst port wall surface finishes that I have ever seen on an aftermarket performance cylinder head. There is casting flash all over the place, and there is a metric ton of material around the valve guides that is not even remotely centered. A majority of my time will be spent in the bowl area trying to fix this critical transition area. Most of the airflow gains will be achieved right there.
Anyway, I started off by purchasing the correct tools for porting aluminum heads.
First of all I purchased an electric grinder. I had initially though I might just use my air grinder because I already had it and it was ready to go. But after researching it on the net I came to the conclusion that the electric grinder was the way to go. First the amount of electricity that I would using powering my 220v air compressor would be MUCH higher then the amount of electricity needed to power an electric grinder. Second is the electric grinder is MUCH more powerful. Actually, I have to be careful with the thing because I could do some SERIOUS damage to these heads if I’m not careful. Anyway, I got this electric grinder from Harbor Freight for $37 shipped to my door (which just the savings in electricity alone from not using the air compressor will pay for it). One thing I did have to deal with by using the electric grinder is how to adjust the motor speed. This grinder has no such control. After jumping on the net again I found an easy solution. I rigged up a dimmer switch and spliced it into an extension cord. BAM, thing works like a charm.
Second, I got a set of burrs that are designed especially for aluminum grinding. I’m sure anyone why has tried to grind on aluminum has seen how the aluminum tends to “gum” up on the bit (or grinding stone). These burrs have less cutting flutes and will not allow this to happen (Tip – keeping oil on the ports and cutting tools helps a lot). The only negative of these burrs is that they are expensive ($60 for the set of 3) and cannot be used on anything else.
Last, I purchased a polishing set that consists of 96 different cartridge rolls of varying sizes and grits. I got this from Summit for $29 and it was a steal in my book. It really does a good job of making the ports professional looking (and hiding all the little mistakes I’ve made so far!).
I'll keep you updated.
Peace.
WesleyJ
Matthew 16:16
Poor transition areas, guides not centered, lots of work needed.
Intake, casting flash and other obstructions.
Intake port, not symmetrical at all.
Electric grinder and light switch dimmer speed control.
Aluminum cutting tools.
Summit polishing set.
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