Head porting Tools Advice?

[Burdekin]

Morning Folks,

I have a cast iron head I need to do some grinding on. My dynamic compression is going to be too high and adding a thicker gasket would probably also cause detonation so I need to make the combustion chamber larger and while I'm there probably do a little work on the exhaust post as it doesn't flow anywhere near as well as the intake. Anyone recommend a die grinder, and carbide burrs (long and short) etc for the job? Not too expensive would be ideal.

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Ebay seller 1967sharong occasionally has a lot of 20 burrs, decent ones for 20 quid or so, I think fizzy was the one who put us all onto them? None at the moment but maybe worth dropping a message?

As for grinder, I'd say, having one without it that variable speed is a must, any decent brand second hand off ebay would be better than a cheapo, mine is a bosch, but I've usedetabo and makita and got on with them all.

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[OJCar]

You have probably already thought of this ...
Breathing protection from the grinding dust.

 

[Morris]

I have a set of ten that came off eBay, they did my Chrysler heads without issue. A good die grinder is essential IMO.
Dust mask and I use a vacuum cleaner in the port.

 

[Stueeee]

I bought one of these Makita electric die grinders for 'easy to get at' cylinder head work. https://www.howetools.co.uk/makita-...HHw0wxx9rJ9PUlpgXcfSljj9LjegBGtBoCPDoQAvD_BwE

Think it was from these people (you can get 1/4" and 3mm/1/8 collets off ebay for this machine)

 

[8ob]

You can always bleed off a bit of dynamic compression with a longer duration cam.

Bob

 

[Gragson]

I bought one of these Makita electric die grinders for 'easy to get at' cylinder head work. https://www.howetools.co.uk/makita-...HHw0wxx9rJ9PUlpgXcfSljj9LjegBGtBoCPDoQAvD_BwE

Think it was from these people (you can get 1/4" and 3mm/1/8 collets off ebay for this machine)

Looks similar to the Katsu one I have https://www.aimtools.co.uk/collections/grinding/products/9-06

I use a cheap variable speed controller with it.

 

[Memmeddu]

Morning Folks,

I have a cast iron head I need to do some grinding on. My dynamic compression is going to be too high and adding a thicker gasket would probably also cause detonation so I need to make the combustion chamber larger and while I'm there probably do a little work on the exhaust post as it doesn't flow anywhere near as well as the intake. Anyone recommend a die grinder, and carbide burrs (long and short) etc for the job? Not too expensive would be ideal.

I have never taken in consideration to enlarge head ports on my rally car project (and it will be turbocharged)
I would avoid it , you can mess up the Venturi effect and cause detonation by overheating the fuel mixture in the intake with hard spots or unexpected restrictions.
I would rather work on the combustion chamber as you already said ,na just clean the ports using abrasives .
Dynamic cr should be lower than static due to restrictions,if you do port works dynamic cr increase
Or at least it's what I know.
Cam duration , increase fueling etc it's what I would work myself.
Valve seat angles too makes a difference, port Angle too
Toyota Yaris gr has s little ramp in the intake port entering the boul to further mix the air fuel mixture ,so it would be more heaven and less prone to detonation (turbocharged high compression ratio)
But it has a dual injection system
Low boost its on port injection (believe up to 1bar) then it works on direct injection

 

[Stueeee]

Looks similar to the Katsu one I have https://www.aimtools.co.uk/collections/grinding/products/9-06

I use a cheap variable speed controller with it.

I made a speed controller to use with mine. Really useful to be able to turn the wick down for finishing work.

Useful to have a flexible drive for port work too, especially working on the valve throat 'short side radius'

The red thing is what's on the other end of the flexi cable, runs at about 10,000 RPM
as per the photo above, I use mounted points for most work in Iron heads, It's easy to get them to a custom shape just by running them against a stick of quartz.

You can see some of them that I've re-shaped here -makes it easier to get a reproduceable radius or whatever on a combustion chamber wall.

 

[bricol]

Crikey - I've got one of those aluminium "filter" holders and a pack of "filter" wads somewhere . . . with a similar bit of stolen elastic attached . . . not used it in 30 yrs or more.

 

[graffian]

Long 1/4" bolts[ with a slit in] and strips of emery. If your posh use silver steel.

 

[Burdekin]

You can always bleed off a bit of dynamic compression with a longer duration cam.

Bob

Yeah, I'm fitting a higher compression head and the ABDC angle is 35deg, the next cam up is 47deg which would be fine. The cam has excellent low to mid torque which is what I want to try and keep. I need to get the static CR down to between 9 and 9.5. I haven't measured anything but if it's to spec should be about 10.5. The combustion chamber has quite a edge near the spark plug which is good to blend out anyway. When I get the head back from machining l'll measure it all up and discuss with the cam/engine guy who I bought the cam from. He's very knowledgeable and helpful so I'll let him advise. I know the engine theory but he builds them and the parts so knows what works.

 

[minimutly]

Crikey - I've got one of those aluminium "filter" holders and a pack of "filter" wads somewhere . . . with a similar bit of stolen elastic attached . . . not used it in 30 yrs or more.

Martindale.
I have some......

 

[minimutly]

An air die grinder is good for working way down with long extensions, but expensive to run.

 

[brightspark]

An air die grinder is good for working way down with long extensions, but expensive to run.

rather use a small air one rather than large electric one or use a flexidrive electric as in in post 9

 

[Stueeee]

Crikey - I've got one of those aluminium "filter" holders and a pack of "filter" wads somewhere . . . with a similar bit of stolen elastic attached . . . not used it in 30 yrs or more.

Martindale.
I have some......

Doing cylinder head/block work is the only time I use the Ali mask; the best thing that can be said about it is that it's better than nothing. Can't wear my 'proper' 3M half mask and my reading glasses for close work.

An air die grinder is good for working way down with long extensions, but expensive to run.

I only got the electric die grinder because of the noise from my air die grinder when working at night. I only have one neighbour nearby, who says she never hears any noise. The combination late at night of the die grinder howling in the inside of the workshop and the chuntering from my Ingersoll Rand compressor which lives outside in an open fronted shedlet would be hard to defend as reasonable noise if someone did complain.

 

[hotponyshoes]

I had an extractor made up for doing heads,
One of them was just a bit of heavy wall round tube with some foam tape around one end of it. That had a plate blanking the other end off and a tube welded on the side that the dust extractor pushed onto.
Then a block of alloy the same height.

I just rested the head on the block plus put the extractor thing under the chamber I was working on.
Not only did it keep most of the dust sucking away from me but you could blow fag smoke into the ports as a budget flow test!

I've got a nice air die grinder that was ideal for porting work if you are looking for one...

I used the carbide burrs as mentioned, then the combination sanding/scotch wheels to finish.

A flex shaft on a dremel/drill was sometimes handy for getting in places but I normally found it better to use a bigger tool with a longer shaft rather than the smaller shafted dremel bits

 

[Burdekin]

I had an extractor made up for doing heads,
One of them was just a bit of heavy wall round tube with some foam tape around one end of it. That had a plate blanking the other end off and a tube welded on the side that the dust extractor pushed onto.
Then a block of alloy the same height.

I just rested the head on the block plus put the extractor thing under the chamber I was working on.
Not only did it keep most of the dust sucking away from me but you could blow fag smoke into the ports as a budget flow test!

I've got a nice air die grinder that was ideal for porting work if you are looking for one...

I used the carbide burrs as mentioned, then the combination sanding/scotch wheels to finish.

A flex shaft on a dremel/drill was sometimes handy for getting in places but I normally found it better to use a bigger tool with a longer shaft rather than the smaller shafted dremel bits

Thanks. Which air die grinder do you use?

 

[Keithmac]

Interested why a thicker head gasket would cause detonation?. Not heard of that before.

 

[hotponyshoes]

Thanks. Which air die grinder do you use?

Mannesmann Demag pencil style.
It's a high speed one, 30k rpm I think. Its a lot easier to use less pressure at a fast speed than high pressure and a lower speed.

Not sure what model it is, g300 or something I think...