Caj Darkmoon

Alright, first thing here: I don't want to hear anything about how no one should try to port and polish themselves or how you can screw things up or how it's not worth it. I understand the risks associated, I understand that a professional P&P job is a lot better, I understand how it's hard to do right. I'm already educated to all of that, so I don't need to hear it now. tongue.gif

Anyways, I've got spring break coming up here in a week, and since I'm poor and lame I'm not going anywhere fun. Instead I'm working 40 hours and doing a whole bunch of work to my car. One of my projects is going to be doing, at minimum, a gasket match port and polish. I may also do more then that depending on what I see when I pull the head apart. My question is does anyone have experience with this and advice they can give?

I'll be doing it with a dremel and the correct bits which I'll pick up next week, and I'll be gasket matching my IM (which I dont have a spare of, so here's hopin I dont screw that up).

So yeah, any advice?

Ericy321

For the IM, you cant really screw that up. As for the head just be careful. Dont get to deep into it and you should be ok. It will be a lot of work for a small if any noticeable gain but pulling heads apart and then putting them back together is kind of fun. Good luck

01steve

hey, gotta learn somewhere right!!!

i think the first problem you may encounter is the valve locks-... auto-zone didn't have the tool for the head i started to dismantle so i was forced to go to the dealership and the tech there did it for me (free but i gave him beer money) but, i learned his trick! what he did was he took a socket that fit over the valve retainer (not to be larger than the valve retainer) and beat it w/ a hammer! this would compress the spring and retainer but not the valve nor the locks-...causing the locks to come apart and freeing the valve. this process may take a few trys! the locks should be within the socket so be careful not to lose them!

i've been told it's better to use a pnumatic die grinder than it is w/a dremel-... but if a dremel is all you have then you should get various bits, w/ grits that graduate from a lower grit to a higher grit. i'd also see if you can get a softer (scotch brite-ish) type of bit for polishing the exhaust ports. i'd also get some regular sand paper so that you could wrap a piece around your finger for detailed work.

as far a s technique, (keep in mind i have yet to do this personally to a cyl head) BE CAREFUL! don't grind into a water jaket. don't mess up the sruface that the gasket touches (causing leaks). don't mees up the valve seats. the intake side does NOT need to be a polished shine-... it should be left a little gritty to keep fuel suspended.

i've been told (by a memeber) that the intake side just needs to be gasket matched and SLIGHTLY smothed out.

on the exhaust side, there is almost a 90 degree bend that need to be smoothed out to where the bottom is more of a 45 degree angle. apparently, it's better to do this from the bottom of the head.

i hope this helped! this info was given to me by a very credible memeber!

geez now i'm excited to get back to my spare cyl head!

Ericy321

The tool to compress valves is cheap. I cant remember exactly what its called but it doesnt cost a whole lot.

01steve

yeah and a 19mm socket is prolly cheaper-... a bit improper but, is it doing any more damage than a cam/hla would do?

i'm not saying it's the best method, but if $ is tight then it is an easy way to bypass buying another tool.

Bullfrog

Caj, I would suggest a good set of digital calipers so that you port each head the same. Other then that im sure you'll take your time. When doing polishing use some oil on your sandpaper/grinder/sotchbrite. The machine shop area where i work uses this method to polish metal.

Ericy321

But you will need to compress the spring to get the keepers back in. And thats a real b**** by itself.

01steve

not to sound like a mocking bird but,

good point!

look now that's twice you've heard that from me tonight! i'll bet you get paid to think.

yeah i haven't gotten that far in my p&p project-... guess that could've went unsaid.

Caj Darkmoon

Where would one go about finding a valve compressor?

SR Tech

Advanced Auto, Autozone. Any place that sells tools should have it. I myself own a air-powered spring compressor, so all i have to do is hit a button, pop the keepers off, let go of the button. fing02.gif