anomalous0's head porting project (now with pictures. No56K

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:25 pm

Well, I was doing my timing belt and cam swap, and realized that my spark plug tube seals were leaking big time, and then I looked into the combustion chamber and saw a bunch of gunk. So I made a decision. I pulled the head. My first thought was "Wow, my exhust ports suck", I'll be doing some port work, getting it milled, and just generally making sure everything is as it should be by the time the car is up and running again. Will post some updates. Wish me luck everyone.

Adionik · Post by **Adionik** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 11:44 pm

How much of a bitch was the timing belt?

Post by **occasional demons** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 12:18 am

From the sounds of it he hasn't finished it.

timing belt isn't as bad as it looks, just take your time, follow the how to's since I changed my cam when I did mine I left the rockers off, so if I slipped when loosening/tightening the cam bolt, I wouldn't risk tweakin' a valve or two. loosening them till the springs are all extended will do the same if you want the extra margin of safety. I ended up using chain style vise grips to hold the cam gear while breaking/torquing the cam bolt. They leave no marks on the gear.

It sounds like you're having the same luck as me when I did my belt. Check the exhaust guides as well. They aren't that expensive to have replaced. Is there alot of casting flash in the exhaust ports, or are you amazed at how small they are under the valve?

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 4:57 am

eh, I've done a timing belt before, none too soon for this one, there were some slits in the old one that I could actually bend in half. And as for my exhaust ports sucking, I meant how little room for flow there is. Thanks for the responses everyone. I have some time to do a rebuild so I'm gonna make the most of it within reason.

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 1:35 am

update: I never understood what was meant by porting the "bowl area" till now. This is because I've only ever seen the intake side of a stock SOHC head (I've seen the exhaust side of one of all motor mike's heads but that hardly gave me an idea of what he started out with.) The port immediately narrows on a ledge to something crappy. At least the head is cleanish now after a couple long baths in hot water and degreaser. Fortunately the head talks to me, tells me how it WANTS to flow, even though it can't yet.
Will post pics when I can borrow a digital camera.
Hooray for drunken porting!!!

bigbird · Post by **bigbird** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:25 am

anomalous0 wrote: Fortunately the head talks to me, tells me how it WANTS to flow, even though it can't yet.
Hooray for drunken porting!!!

Id say!

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:29 am

I'm not too worried because the stock exhaust design is so crappy that there's really no way I can do a worse job without being a total idiot.

Post by **occasional demons** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:09 am

Besides, if you screw it up, there's always the bare Magnum head from Mancini Racing; and swapping the hardware from your f'd up head.

Mmmm, wait, maybe that's your engine block talking to you.

ZeroChad · Post by **ZeroChad** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:12 am

occasional demons wrote:Besides, if you screw it up, there's always the bare Magnum head from Mancini Racing; and swapping the hardware from your f'd up head. Mmmm, wait, maybe that's your engine block talking to you.

right on!

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:24 pm

haha no word from the block yet.....I ran out of stoli

kc2005ptgt · Post by **kc2005ptgt** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:52 pm

this belongs in the project log, moving it there

NeonOn19s · Post by **NeonOn19s** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:36 am

Adionik wrote:How much of a bitch was the timing belt?

It was a pain... for me at least... you have to unmount the whole engine to get to it... it took a while weekend if you have all the part available... for me 2 weeks... needed to order a new alternate pulley from the dealer...

just my .02

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:24 pm

timing belt is mostly tough because of the crank pulley. Everything else is easy if you put a jack under the block (using a phone book to prevent oil pan damage of course)

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:43 pm

Here's some progress so far. Obviously I have a long way to go but I've managed to remove most of what I need to as far as rough cutting.

Seanathan · Post by **Seanathan** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:21 am

Nice work man. I'm enjoying watching the work progress. Lucky me I get to watch it first hand. And gotta say its coming out well. I can't wait to get your beast on the dyno!

You'll need to post up the most current photo's.

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:49 pm

Polished the pistons today and took the head in to get milled. They looked at me funny when I said I wanted it milled 30 thousandths, but said they could do it. The pistons had so much carbon buildup I bet they raised the compression a little, so maybe I should have gotten the shop to mill it .0040

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:04 am

Got the head back from the machine shop yesterday! It's shiny......
Also, milling seemed to unshroud the valves a little more than I could safely do. Perhaps it helps you gain power in more than one way.

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:54 am

She's running now! The sound is completely different, much meaner and louder. I fixed the vacuum leak (had to design a different way to connect my TB to intake manifold, now there's a coolant leak that needs attending to (no it's not the head gasket). All the little things that drive you nuts when doing any sort of rebuild are, well, driving me nuts. Other than that, seat of the pants gain is amazing, but then I did port it, up compression, and go up in cam size a goodly amount.

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:51 am

Coolant leak fixed, car idles almost like stock but with a teeny bit of lope, screams on the high end, and is smoother and peppier on the low end in spite of the porting and bigger cam, which convinces me that I did a pretty decent job porting. It's like I have a hidden reserve of power just waiting for me when I hit 5K RPMs. Car is actually staying cooler too. One thing to note, although I removed both middle layers of the head gasket, with the coolant and oil restrictors, I DID get the little oil restrictor you pound into the block per Jeff B., though no coolant restrictors.

03blackrt · Post by **03blackrt** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:25 pm

sounds good!

So it's decked and head gasket mod'ed too?

anomalous0 · Post by **anomalous0** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:28 pm

yup. After going on the freeway for a while the temp gauge goes up higher than it used to, but stays in the nominal range. I actually get less lugging and no pinging at low RPM, probably a result of a bigger cam and cleaning out all of the carbon buildup. Overall powerband is smoother, and I can definitely tell I need an extra 1000 RPM, though the car is quicker anywhere above 2,500. I feel like my efforts were well worth it.

ragek23 · Post by **ragek23** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 7:37 pm

congrats man! Makes me want to put more work in to my neon.