Is it worth porting stock heads?

**silver35thss** · 07-18-2009, 01:46 PM

I want to know if its worth porting the stock heads or buying new and bigger ones? Just wondering

**garygnu65** · 07-18-2009, 03:22 PM

i have seen good flow numbers with 241s with alot of porting.are you going to port them your self?if so it is time well invested. if you are going to pay some one to port them for you ,i believe it would be more cost effective to buy a set of 243s cnc by a good head company like patriot head.

**blackbirdbrain89** · 07-18-2009, 10:19 PM

dude im porting a set right now and its a lot of time... im looking at 10 hrs on one head and thats probly one the low side.. and i fucked up one set all ready... but gotta love e bay... btw my goal is 450 whp with 682 heads ported and mached with big ass cam and 11.5-1 to 12.0 Cr and frost tuning and if need be a little bit of no2 help... but i have a built trans and a nine ich to handle it...

**mark21742** · 07-20-2009, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by blackbirdbrain89

dude im porting a set right now and its a lot of time... im looking at 10 hrs on one head and thats probly one the low side.. and i fucked up one set all ready... but gotta love e bay... btw my goal is 450 whp with 682 heads ported and mached with big ass cam and 11.5-1 to 12.0 Cr and frost tuning and if need be a little bit of no2 help... but i have a built trans and a nine ich to handle it...

damn Justin you need to get new bits and a bigger compressor....5 hours of grinding and polishing on my stock 241's to get them were I wanted to be.....and thanks to you and Bill I didn't hit the water passage under the exhaust valve.....so I guess I owe you a few beers.
if you port your heads, get them milled while they off to bump your compression up!

**SSwt00SS** · 07-21-2009, 06:44 AM

personally, the time and expense tied up into porting stock heads is not worth it, and could exceed the price of new aftermarket heads, IMO.

i chose to pick up aftermarket heads, that way if anything happened down the road, i could go back to the stock heads to sell the car, or fix it, if something breaks. atleast with an extra set of aftermarket heads you can get some money back out of them that way...

**blackbirdbrain89** · 07-23-2009, 01:53 PM

ur better off just geting thinner head gaskets then milling btw there's more surface area to be had in the gasket then in the head.. and I'm not stopping on my heads till there flow benched and making good numbers

**JB454** · 07-23-2009, 03:36 PM

I assume you are doing the porting yourself? Do you have more time than money, or more money than time? The 5 axis cnc ported heads are killer, and fairly resonable once you go over the entire bill (valves, locks, springs, machining time, etc). Not trying to be a smartass, just talkig bloodsweat equity. John

**macca33** · 10-13-2009, 04:13 AM

Doing a bit of digging!

We've got a bloke over here doing some very nice CnC 241s, 243s and the newer L92 / LS3 stuff and getting very good gains.

I know the 241 head is nowhere near as good as the others mentioned, however, there are gains to be had from milling / porting them - if that is the way you wish to go.

It all comes down to your budget in the end.

cheers