Fair price for porting and polishing heads

[Brooks James]

In in FLA
set of 92 stock 360 magnum. Heads
from
Going from 212 to 250 CFM
i know there are many variables, Looking for a ball park number
I saw a postl recently that said he had heads portd for $400
That doesnt pass the sniff test for me

 

[Professor Fate]

Anyone can port heads- doing it WELL, on the other hand; takes experience and patience (and a flowbench doesn't hurt, either!). Otherwise you could just as easily be shooting yourself in the foot...

 

[MOPAROFFICIAL]

400 for porting could mean a bowl/valve job blend and gasket match.
1400-1600 for aftermarket ported magnums in the 260 range.
Heads,machine,the porting and chamber work, flow bench time...parts.
Then throw shipping on there.

 

[PRH]

I’d say the first question is.......Does the OP have some crack free cores to get reworked?

I’m sure someone will do some amount of porting for $400.

 

[RustyRatRod]

People are starting to shy away from porting cast iron. It's a ***** to port and burns up a lot of tools. I'd say if the person who says they'll do it for 400 can produce flow sheets of his port work, references and show you his equipment, he might be ok.

 

[PRH]

1400-1600 for aftermarket ported magnums in the 260 range.
Heads,machine,the porting and chamber work, flow bench time...parts.

Considering the castings are nearly $800, that sounds like a deal.

 

[MOPAROFFICIAL]

Considering the castings are nearly $800, that sounds like a deal.

Someone elses black friday deal they wanna sell.

 

[MOPARMAGA]

400 for porting, nope it's no good then, unless it's the guys love & passion in life lol

 

[mbaird]

Paid around $1500 for my ported EQ heads new from Brian @IMM a few years back. Some heads really wake up with a good valve job and minor bowl cleanup. W2s and EQ magnums are good examples.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I have 750 in port work alone in my slant 6 head. A tick more than 1500 in the whole thing.

 

[roccodart440]

Last time I looked, it was 1,500 for a CNC port job from modern cylinder heads. That was for aluminum heads. I'd expect to spend at least that much for quality porting job on cast iron.

 

[gzig5]

My research into the cost of porting a couple years ago resulted in an average of about $600-$800 a head for a full porting effort that would get the head above 255-ish CFM range. So call it a ballpark of $1500 from a "reputable" shop. What that entails and the actual result are going to vary. The cost of increasing valve size is not in there.

 

[PRH]

I haven’t really kept track of what was/is going on in the Magnum world.

“Back in the day”, when real NZ made EQ’s were readily available........ weren’t the castings themselves pretty “cheap”?

I guess what I’m saying is, what someone paid for those heads maybe like 7-10 years ago, all done and ready to go....... isn’t really relative to what that money will buy you today.
The real EQ heads flowed over 250 right ootb.

 

[Brooks James]

Great responses guys, the heads are stock 94 magnum. A member recently posted instructions on printing out a template on card stock, thank you.
I priced bits and an air drill, it Looks like I would spend around $80 for bits. That will be done when Im finished.
I aware that I wiuld not get the same results as a professiinal.
In not chasing every tiny bit if horsepower, but am hoping that the heads porrted and a competetion valve Job will add 50 hp. Is that in the ball park ??
I have nothing in the heads, I havenothing to lose, will gain knowledge, and experience
Will be posting frequently when I start. I will definitely need help staying in the right direction.

 

[PRH]

hoping that the heads porrted and a competetion valve Job will add 50 hp. Is that in the ball park ?

For a first time effort with no experience and no way to quantify that you’re actually improving the heads(flow testing).
I’d put that in the “extremely unlikely” category.

Everyone thinks they can spend a few hours grinding on metal and big HP gains will magically happen.
Unless someone happens to be a porting savant....... it usually ends up where the first time “porter” spends hours and hours making metal filings, with gains that someone more experienced could replicate in 1/10 the time.
And that’s if the first time porter actually “improves” the heads(which is def not a guarantee).

That being said........ I think everyone should at least try porting their own heads, if for no other reason than to understand how much time it can take to make significant improvements in flow to a set of stock heads.

You might actually enjoy the process.
However, many times....... the first time porter bites off more than they want to chew...... and you end up with varying levels in the amount of porting from hole to hole, as the energy levels and enthusiasm for the process starts to wane.

As for actually knowing what the “porting” is worth in terms of HP gains....... there is only one way to know.
You would test the motor with the heads refurbished, but without porting.
Then pull the heads, port them(do nothing else), and put them back on....... see what the difference in power is.

 

[Brooks James]

G

400 for porting could mean a bowl/valve job blend and gasket match.
1400-1600 for aftermarket ported magnums in the 260 range.
Heads,machine,the porting and chamber work, flow bench time...parts.
Then throw shipping on there.

 

[RustyRatRod]

With the cost of imported aluminum heads, it just doesn't make sense to port cast iron anymore, unless the class you're running in requires it, or you're like me playing with slant sixes and cast iron is all there is.

 

[MOPAROFFICIAL]

1st pair of heads I really "ported".. and not just the smoohing of angles in the bowl and shine job bs.. were 915 j's and they went 270cfm. That made a lot of people open their eyes.. and others mad. The 1st guy who flowed them stopped wanting to flow any of stuff anymore... he always had customers in there and his biz livelihood was in their nitro cars.. cant have someone elses "junk chrysler heads" flowing that big...they might shed their smaller build stuff to me. He also narrowed some bearings to fit the mains... but not enough. He tried. Many stories.
You can get lucky... if you study and physically have various cyl heads to look at/finger bang.
I got lucky... others do as well.

 

[RustyRatRod]

1st pair of heads I really "ported".. and not just the smoohing of angles in the bowl and shine job bs.. were 915 j's and they went 270cfm. That made a lot of people open their eyes.. and others mad. The 1st guy who flowed them stopped wanting to flow any of stuff anymore... he always had customers in their and his biz likelihood was in their nitro cars.. cant have someone elses "junk chrysler heads" flowing that big...they might shed their smaller build stuff to me. He also narrowed some bearings to fit the mains... but not enough. He tried. Many stories.
You can get lucky... if you study and physically have various cyl heads to look at and borrow techniques.
I got lucky... others do as well.

Yeah but now you have EXPERIENCE enough to DUPLICATE lucky. So it's not lucky anymore. It's experience, Mr Ferguson.

 

[PRH]

The first set of heads I “fully ported”, and had tested were some 906’s with 2.14/1.81 valves in them.
I had been running them for a while already when I started working at a machine shop(1989).
Car had been 11.50’s with them in their armature bowl blended form.
The shop I was working at had a local guy do their head porting, and he had a SF-600 flow bench.
He was often in the shop picking up/dropping off work.
I had pulled my 906’s off and had him look them over and give me some pointers.
I did what I thought at the time was a fair amount of additional porting, and put them back on the motor.
Made 535hp with a Racer Brown ssh-44 hyd cam....... put the motor in the car, went low-11’s.

In 1992 I bought a new SF-110 flow bench.

A couple years later I had the 906’s off again to set them up for a roller cam.
I flowed all the ports on the SF-110.
The 8 cylinder average was 239cfm.

With a few years additional experience under my belt, I went back at the porting.
After what seemed like quite a bit of porting...... I had the 8 cylinder avg up to just over 260, and had a minimal amount of flow regression after .550-600.

With the additional head porting and roller cam the car went 10.70’s the second time out.
10.91 first pass with the new combo.

Nowadays, I can get 906’s into the 260 range with the stock sized 2.08 valve, and still leave a part of the port untouched.

 

[MOPAROFFICIAL]

Yeah but now you have EXPERIENCE enough to DUPLICATE lucky. So it's not lucky anymore. It's experience, Mr Ferguson.

I spent 3 months off n on on those heads. The lowest flowing port 'till I got the flow bench and corrected it' flowed 262cfm.

 

[toolmanmike]

I should have had mine flowed just for curiosity. I traded 3 electric grinders for the work. I came out good on the deal. They were for my 273.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I should have had mine flowed just for curiosity. I traded 3 electric grinders for the work. I came out good on the deal. They were for my 273.

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How's it run?