W2 Mopar inspection w/RAMM
Not to hijack this thread, but...you guys like RAMM, yellow rose, gregconn and others...where and how did you learn the art and nuances of porting and head flow? I would never feel comfortable grinding and experimenting on a set of decent LA heads, especially not having a flow bench. It's pretty obvious that even what looks like an obvious improvement can actually slow down and stall air flow, create swirl and back flow where it may not be wanted, and other issues. Just curious? I can start another thread for this if anyone cares to elaborate. Again, not meaning to hijack here, just curious.
You can only do this by doing it. A flow bench tells you so much more than air flow, so having one is a big deal. Should have never sold mine.
The other thing is you have to be able to shake **** off. If you jack something up, make a hole...whatever...you have to chalk it up to learning and fix it and move on. If you never make a mistake, you won’t ever make power. There is more to power than bulk airflow through a port.
That’s why I’m saying screw it and going all in on the burr finish. I actually like it enough now to sell it. All my earlier attempts at a burr finish were horrible. At this point, I think for most everything I want to do, the burr finish is mandatory.
I’m fighting some drivability issues with tunnel ram intakes and I think it can be traced to improper booster selection and the cold intake manifolds not atomizing the fuel well enough. This can’t hurt and will take a variable out of the equation.
You can’t look at my burrs and say that’s what you need. I have used up hundreds and hundreds of dollars of burrs. Bent some, and some just didn’t make the shapes I thought they would. Your eyes won’t see the same shape the same way my eyes do, so to get that same shape you may need a different tool.
Read everything you can. I’ve posted links to a couple of webinars by Darin Morgan that I’ve listened to several times. The Harold Bettes book...can’t think of the name of it is a great book to read. David Vizard has a porting book that’s pretty good. Even if you only learn one or two things from a book, article or webinar that you didn’t know before, it will pay off later on.
Darin Morgan, Chris Frank, Chad Speier, Larry Meaux just to name a few guys that are worth reading. Jim McFarland wrote some really good stuff. If you can find it on line it would be worth the search. He was BIG into mixture quality before most guys talked about it publicly.
Then you have to spend time behind the grinder and flow bench . It’s not sexy, glamorous work. It’s pays jack ****, unless you can find a niche, exploit it and do it with production. The likelihood of making any decent money just doing Chrysler stuff isn’t good. There are so many better options than the mopar stuff it’s not funny. I’ll get verbally ***** slapped for that, but it ain’t wrong.
Everybody and their mother told me not to bother learning how to port. They said it was easier to just pay a “pro” to do it. Most “pro’s” aren’t really. They are no different than you or I.
Then when I bought my flow bench I realized how many straight bullshitters there are. They all talk “shape, shape, shape” but they live and die by flow numbers. You can make a head make more HP and make the car quicker and lose flow on a bench. Especially on the exhaust side. Shape is everything, and size is close second.
Sometimes you have to make a compromise. Learning where the compromise goes is a big deal. You learn that by testing.
You can learn this stuff. It’s boring as hell, dirty and plain tedious work. If finding 5 CFM doesn’t get you off, if finding you've lowered the BSFC by .2 doesn’t excite you, porting may not be your cup of tea. You also can’t ride your paradigm. You have to be willing to revisit what didn’t work in the past. It may be that you learned something new that makes a past loser a gain. Or, your skills improved enough that what didn’t work now will.
