Planning out my engine build, and I apologize for the "noob" question, but I'm sure many out there have thought the same thing...

Car will be an almost daily driver, and a weekend hpde and fun car. I need drive ability and reliability above max power numbers.

Block is a us b18c with stock crank, itr rods, Mahle 81.25mm pistons with a 12.5/1 compression, s2 pro intake, itr valves on intake and exhaust, unsure of valve train, unsure of cams, unsure of header, Apexi ws exhaust.

Not looking for the all motor power record here, but I want more than stock... Is it worth it for me to have the cylinder head ported? I have a b18c as well as a b16a head to choose from. Not a biggie on which one gets used to me. But is the cost of porting by a reputable porter , such as 4piston or Endyne or RLZ, worth it for a mostly street able engine?

I know the pros of porting, but just want a "real world" opinion...

Thanks.

 

My opinion I would probably go with bowl work and a valve job like an ITR head .. It will give you a little more power with out hurting your wallet so much.. I've thought about sending my head out on a daily the thought about it getting stolen or having some catastrophic failure happen driving it everyday

 

I'd have to agree. In the real world for road racing, some bowl work is all you really need, especially if just road racing and not for all out power.

 

I agree as well. For a street car, good low end power really makes the car enjoyable, but smaller engines aren't known for good low end power. It doesn't help when you start opening up the intake ports either. A good valve job and bowl work is really as far as I would go, unless I'm stepping up the displacement.

There are shops now that are offering a "stage 1" or "street" porting package where the intake and exhaust get a custom valve job cut, and the exhaust port gets fully ported but the intake is only ported in the bowl and blended into the valve job. It's been wildly popular, especially with guys on a budget as the price is significantly less, but the results are comparable to fully ported heads. I think it'll eventually catch on with other shops as well.

 

Any suggestions on where to begin looking for a "street" port job? Most of the big porter sites don't show it as an option. I would rather have someone reputable do it versus taking it to the local V8 shop...

 

Some places will have a list of individual things they will do. Best bet is to just give them a call tell them what you want so they can put a package together for you.

 

Call tom@portflow he offers this service and his customer service is top notch

 

i do this for my roadrace costumers,

i do however make a pass on the intake ports with a sanding roll just to clean it up a bit
but not take as much material

it works really well on 1.6 - 1.8L road race/street stuff,

 

valve jobs has to be the most underrated cylinder head work that is done. focusing on the right camshafts, header, intake manifold etc etc etc is the combination of parts that work together that makes power.

also, there's other factors to be considered when building a car to suit your needs. a little off topic, there's tons of people out there that wouldn't hesitate to buy a "big brake system" but would think twice before they decide to spend some cash on a sticky set of tires after they wasted their cash on a brake system that they didn't need. i hope you get what i mean.

main point, save some cash, get a valve job from someone reputable and choose the right combination of parts.

 

I couldn't agree more. There are plenty of "experts" with their "Porting How-To's", but nobody is giving away valve job profiles. Not any good ones at least.

 

Thanks for the input.

Are there any awesome shops that do awesome valve jobs and clean up work that you all use? I plan on making some calls tomorrow, but if you have some proven suggestions it would be great.

 

portflow

 

When I here shops have staged head jobs it really only shows there inexperience there's only one way to do heads that's the right way our heads are done the same on a Indy car or lawn mower engine if done correctly you gain power across the entire rpm range and drivability is actually better than stock as well as reliabilty.If you want the same head job as a IRL car we can do it for you its really not that pricey stay away from STAGED head work. We charge by how many valves you have its about 30$ a hole if all parts are supplied

 

lol thats because its the black art of cylinder head work! top secret, classified G14 Sector 7 type of stuff lol

 

Yes I agree with u cr1 all the power is made at the valve and within 3/4 of in of the valve not black magic

 

so who is "we"? shop name? location? website?

 

R/D spring d15beta knows who we are

 

Most shops have basic VJs. Specifying 3-angle, 5-angle, etc is meaningless. It's like saying give me a 3-piece suit, I don't care about the size or color.

We use this VJ for our 321+cfm GSR head

 

Proper porting is almost always worth it on heads that aren't well-casted.

 

Mainly cleaning them up not hogging out tons of material. Especially high rpm motors they need more velocity than anything because the more rpm the less time the valve is open to fill the cyl. We have a very nice 4d cad program but my grandpa still does most on paper he's 85 not so computer literate. And our valves have no angles they are radius angles are a restriction

 

You're silly.

Shops stage cylinder head work, and many other things as well, for several reasons. One is budget. A "stage 1" being a valvejob and a bowl blend. Minimal costs with significant reward. Higher stages would incorporate aftermarket valves, contouring of the ports as well as the chamber, all of which incur more costs.

Second, not everyone drives a damn IRL car. Engine displacements and the RPM range the engine operates in vary and so the airflow demands on the cylinder head vary accordingly. You can't seriously think a head ported for a 2.4L B series buzzing to 10,000RPM is a good idea for a daily driven 1.8L, do you? That's why you see some heads "staged" with different port volumes.

Just how much velocity does a high rpm engine need? Would you say you wouldn't hog out a high rpm engine's cylinder heads since it needs velocity and all, but on a lower rpm everyday daily driver, it would be okay? Why does everyone else in every competitive aspect of racing use angles in their valves and valvejobs, and you don't?

 

Intake side Rocket what does the exhaust seat look like ?

 

These are just some of race cars we have done Team menards IRL car ,interstate batteries NASCAR , iron man Ivan Stewart toyota trophy truck, team bergenholtz pro fwd Mazda, Mohr racing vw, moto gp bikes, the FIRST import drag car to break 6s team venoms supra powered tundra, all of the team venom cars,the first top fuel drag bike to break 5s spiderman Larry mcbride many one of kind vintage Ferrari, Porsche ,Mercedes, gt40s,shelby cobras,shelby Daytona's, lots of bikes and cars for Jay Leno, count less motor cycles and my grandpa has actually done motorcycle work with MUGEN Honda back in the day. This is a small portion I'm not on here to argue or bullcrap with people

 

I like a radius throats on the exhaust. Check your e-mail for an invitation.

 

And what do you do? Sweep the floors?

I'm just asking you to back up some of your claims. There are too many people around that regurgitate total BS. If you're not one of those people, you should have no problem arguing your point. Falling back to dropping names pretty much proves otherwise.