[289Mustang]

Head porters, what size and what types would you recommend for porting a set of heads?

I've been checking this site and they have a decent selection but don't know what dia. and shape are best.


http://www.discount-tools.com

 

[Motorhead]

Flame or football shaped. I bought 3 burrs for porting my heads, a cylinder shaped one, a flame shaped one, and a ball shaped one. Here's a summary of my useage of each one:

Ball: 2 minutes
Cylinder: 15 minutes
Flame: 10 hours

Honestly, the only reason I used the other two was to see if they worked any better, then I switched back to the flame shaped one. If I had to do it over again, I would have just bought ONE burr. Hope that helped ya.

 

[kid vishus]

I use an oval, (or football) shaped 3/8" diameter for about everything I do. I have one large 1/2" barrel shape I use for removing large amounts of material fast, but I always end up back to the oval. I do have a ball (very seldom ever use), and a tree shaped (I believe that was what Bill Mitchel called it) that Iuse once and awhile. They all have 4" shanks, I really like them that length, makes it easier to reach down into the port.

 

[n2omike]

I guess the burr type I use the most is a cylinder with a rounded top. The cylinder shaped burr with a flat top doesn't always leave a smooth finish, but the round top cylinder shaped works great.

Cast iron burrs seem to like to run around 10k rpm or so. Most electric grinders spin around 25k at full speed, which will kill a burr right quick, so some sort of speed control is required. A 300W light dimmer switch (very common and cheap) is the easiest way to go.

Coarse cartridge rolls also get a LOT of use in my garage. These remove metal surprisingly fast on iron and aluminum. They also leave a nice finish. They like to be run around the same speed as the burrs. I've got all sorts of mandrels up to around 8" long... so they reach as far as you need.

The first set of heads I ported were done with a standard electric drill and stones... Talk about SLOW going.

Stones are quite a bit slower than cartridge rolls (sanding rolls). I rarely use those anymore.

I've got an expensive full size 1/4"Dumore grinder that has a very small diameter snout, so it reaches places really easy... but it has developed a vibration. Lately, I've been using a couple of those bluegreen $19 Ebay grinders with great success. They are a cheap copy of a Makita. The collets were a bit tight for many of my burrs, but a after a little reaming with a drill, they work just fine. For $19, you just can't beat them.

I get most of my burrs from swap meets. The short ones are usually around $8, and the extra long ones are marked at $15. If you buy a few at a time, it's possible to get a significant discount.

As for the cartridge rolls, I order them by the 100 pak from Travers Tool. They are pretty cheap. The extra long mandrels are made by Standard Abrasives. You can go to their website for the part numbers, then order them through Summit. These are also found at swap meets for $5 or so each for the long ones.

http://www.traverstool.com

https://www.travers.com/catalog/search.asp?ix=445017&sTerms=cartridge+rolls&iSearchType=1&fSearch

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.htm

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/products.shtm

Good Luck!

 

[Brian K.]

Go too www.rjtool.com and get the 6" 1/4 shank flame, oval and cylender burrs. The flame is great for fast material removal, and the price for the burrs is the cheapist i've seen.

 

[289Mustang]

Anyone know how to wire in one of those dimmer switches to slow down the drill speed? I asked my stepdad who is an amateur electrician but he didn't know how to hook it up. He does know about all kinds of small electronic crap

Mike, I am going to use one of those die grinders like to one you have. Got it a year ago and used it once. Good deal once you chuck the stones in the trash.
_________________
1966 Mustang Coupe 302 POS C4 >

1989 Mustang LX 5.0 AOD Bashed in door

Got $$$ now

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 289Mustang on 4/7/02 12:14pm ]</font>

 

[Motorhead]

Here's how I wired mine: I got an outdoor electrical box sized for four outlets, and a cover plate with two outlets and one light switch hole. Then I bought one electrical outlet fixture and one dimmer switch fixture. Then get a short extension cord and cut off the female end (so you can plug the other end into the wall). Wire the white wire to the 'white' or 'common' side of the outlet, and wire the black wire to one of the wires on the dimmer switch, and the other wire from the dimmer switch to the 'black' or 'hot' side of the outlet. If that wasn't clear enough I could probably draw a picture and post it.

 

[289Mustang]

So you had a dimmer switch controlling one set of outlets and another set of outlets not controlled by it? This was all wired to a male plug so it could be plugged into the wall/x-cord right? I'm sure its not tough but me and electricity don't get along too well.

 

[FE427TP]

just remember the white wire will go to the silver or chrome screw and the black will go to the brass/colored/non silver non green screw and of course ground goes to the green one.

 

[289Mustang]

Turns out my stepdad did know how to do this. He thought I was talking about some fancy dimmer thing. He should have known better. Thanks guys.

 

[65mustang393]

While porting my new Victor Jr's (flow numbers soon), I came to the conclusion that the 3/8" oval/egg/football is by far the most versatile little shape out there. It's small enough to get into most corners and still big enough to cover the port pretty well.

I also found that on aluminum, you can use the regular metal carbide burr as long as you don't go to fast (you'll clog up the burr if you do). I also found that Cylinder Head Abrasives (www.ruffstuff.com) has a "high helix" that works awesome on aluminum.

As far as grinders go, I love my Makita GD0810C. It's adjustable from 1800-7000 rpm and has a ton of torque. It's spendy at 259 (from amazon.com), but well worth it. I've made my own speed limiter before with a light dimmer switch, but I found that it killed the torque as well as the speed.

Have fun porting, it is truly one of the most tedious things I've ever done! Aluminum is soooooo much easier.

 

[n2omike]

Grinders Grease (from Eastwood) is good for aluminum. It keeps the aluminum from sticking to the burr. Works great, you just have to keep applying it.

Good Luck!

 

[mustangzrule]

Grinders grease. I hadn't thought of that.

That aluminum is hard to remove once it clogs your burr.

Look for a burr with larger teeth for porting aluminum to keep the clogs out of them. I saved some money by using high speed steel burr instead of carbide because the aluminum clogged the burr almost immediately and the cheaper burrs had larger teeth.

I also will be trying the grease thing.

 

[289Mustang]

I'll dredge this post up again to tack on another question. What are the advantages to using single-cut bits over double-cut and vice versa?

 

[65mustang393]

The single cut allows for faster metal removal, while the double cut iron burrs are more controllable and smoother.

If you use a cast iron burr on aluminum, just go slow and use an toothbrush to remove the aluminum that gets packed into the teeth. The cast iron burr leaves a much nicer finish on the aluminum than the aluminum cutter does. If you want a really nice aluminum bit that leaves a high quality finish, get a "high helix" aluminum burr from "Cylinder Head Abrasives".

Hope this helped.

 

[289Mustang]

This is for cast iron. Will one last longer over the other or no difference?

 

[rjsupply]

Buckeye Carbide is a great place to buy carbide burs.