Best "easy" port mods Edelbrock heads

[Mean416]

Hey guys. I'm still working on my 418 stroker setup.

I have bone stock eddies with back cut valves and I know they really aren't enough head flow for a hot stroker. But at this time unfortunately I can't justify spending more on the engine for different heads porting etc.

I was wondering what low cost head mods and easy porting suggestions could be made? Im handy with a die grinder but I don't want to get super involved with extensive mods because I'm definitely not a pro. Just looking to get the best I can out of a flow limited situation.

Thanks!

 

[Scody21]

Send them to YellowRose . He did mine RPM heads and airgap. There badass…

 

[autoxcuda]

sleeve push rod holes with brass tube and port the port pinch out until you touch the brass.

Here are some before and beginnings of a gasket match and bowl cleanup. Minor not aggressive port job.

Notice the combustion chambers are matched to cylinder bores. Heads bolted to block then bore scribed onto them

Also chamber edges softened

 

[MOPAROFFICIAL]

Send them to YellowRose . He did mine RPM heads and airgap. There badass…

Didnt they flow 250's when he got done?
I read the thread, did I read that part wrong..maybe I did...what was it?

 

[Scody21]

Didnt they flow 250's when he got done?
I read the thread, did I read that part wrong..maybe I did...what was it?

Before were 236 at .550 and after is 271 at .550 on the same bench

 

[Bewy]

The pushrod pinch should only be opened up once it becomes the flow restriction...& often it is not. I found out the hard way& ruined a good set of heads doing it.

 

[harrisonm]

Who is Yellowstone?

 

[rumblefish360]

Search member Pittsburghracer and see his threads on porting heads as he has done several set on FABO.

Otherwise I’d say for the “Easy Mods” on head porting would be gasket matching and bowl porting.

 

[pittsburghracer]

Here’s a few days of reading. The Speedmaster ports are basically the same.

Speedmaster head thread index

 

[Brian Hafliger]

The pushrod pinch should only be opened up once it becomes the flow restriction...& often it is not. I found out the hard way& ruined a good set of heads doing it.

This is in accurate at best...OOTB the Eddy heads only have around 1.9" at the pinch...a 418 cid engine needs 2.2 sq. in. min. to reach or make power up to 5800rpm. The throat area and the short turn area are already much larger than this...So once you do some bowl blending, maybe a better valve job, some relieving in the chamber off the seat, short turn re work, guide boss narrowing...you have a port that is now maybe 50-100fps faster! The only way to slow it down, is open the pinch up which will calm the port down and allow the engine to make more power above peak TQ. You can only hurt the head by porting into the pushrod tunnel or water, or something like that. You won't get the pinch too large and hurt the heads ability to make power.

 

[rumblefish360]

Thanks for the tip and I’m glad I read that to confirm what I thought & learned from Pittsburghracer was OK to do on my heads.

Would you make this suggestion or move on smaller CID engines like a 340 or 360? If so, at what point or level of power?
Thanks Brian!

This is in accurate at best...OOTB the Eddy heads only have around 1.9" at the pinch...a 418 cid engine needs 2.2 sq. in. min. to reach or make power up to 5800rpm. The throat area and the short turn area are already much larger than this...So once you do some bowl blending, maybe a better valve job, some relieving in the chamber off the seat, short turn re work, guide boss narrowing...you have a port that is now maybe 50-100fps faster! The only way to slow it down, is open the pinch up which will calm the port down and allow the engine to make more power above peak TQ. You can only hurt the head by porting into the pushrod tunnel or water, or something like that. You won't get the pinch too large and hurt the heads ability to make power.

 

[Brian Hafliger]

Thanks for the tip and I’m glad I read that to confirm what I thought & learned from Pittsburghracer was OK to do on my heads.

Would you make this suggestion or move on smaller CID engines like a 340 or 360? If so, at what point or level of power?
Thanks Brian!

I approach porting the same way I build engines....they are all application specific. It's not so much the size of engine, but the overall combo of the engine and it's use.

 

[pittsburghracer]

I approach porting the same way I build engines....they are all application specific. It's not so much the size of engine, but the overall combo of the engine and it's use.

I agree. About the first words out of someone’s mouth is the question how about going with a 2.08 valve. Meanwhile they want to run a .520-.550 lift cam. Totally unnecessary and a waste of time and money.

 

[Mean416]

Im not going to be messing with any extensive porting.

I was thinking along the lines of valve job angles etc

 

[rumblefish360]

The cost of a few bits and a die grinder, but he work you could do as a new guy would be a excellent gain in flow. Look up porting on this site. Pittsburghracer has a few threads on how to do it.

When all is said and done, it’ll be the best bang for the buck you do.

 

[toolmanmike]

I think that even a minimum porting mod should include a minimum of a 3 angle seat cut, Back cut the valves, Port match and a bowl blend with a guide boss massage.

 

[rumblefish360]

The valve seat and back cutting is, for me at least, a job for the machinist. (I guess I could do the back cutting myself, IDK, never really thought about it.)
The bowl work and port matching can be done at home alright.

 

[mopowers]

Do you guys back cut your intakes and exhausts, or just your intake valves? I've heard conflicting opinions.

 

[Brian Hafliger]

Do you guys back cut your intakes and exhausts, or just your intake valves? I've heard conflicting opinions.

Most of the time just intakes...but on OEM heads with poor flowing ports, I back cut both intake and exhaust to help the engine see more airflow at overlap since the cam is probably on the smaller side.

 

[mopowers]

Most of the time just intakes...but on OEM heads with poor flowing ports, I back cut both intake and exhaust to help the engine see more airflow at overlap since the cam is probably on the smaller side.

Short, sweet and to the point. Thank you sir!

 

[pittsburghracer]

One of these days I would love to set a stock Edelbrock head and a stock Speedmaster head side by side and try to figure out way a Speedmaster head sounds so nice and quiet on my flowbench compared to an Edelbrock head.

 

[toolmanmike]

One of these days I would love to set a stock Edelbrock head and a stock Speedmaster head side by side and try to figure out way a Speedmaster head sounds so nice and quiet on my flowbench compared to an Edelbrock head.

Perfect, and report back please.

 

[autoxcuda]

Im not going to be messing with any extensive porting.

I was thinking along the lines of valve job angles etc

The pictures I showed are just gasket matching, casting clean up, valve seat to casting edge blending, and bore to chamber matching.

The pinch widening was the only sorta-barely aggressive porting.

 

[Bewy]

The OP should watch Eric Weingartner's 24 July video about why you don't want to port the prod pinch.....unless it is too late.

 

[Brian Hafliger]

The OP should watch Eric Weingartner's 24 July video about why you don't want to port the prod pinch.....unless it is too late.

He's explaining why when people open the pinch up, or just do a port match WITHOUT doing any other port work is not recommended...because you can slow the air down too much. That is not ruining the head! You just need to keep improving the rest of the port ;-)