Porting DC Stage IV iron heads

[pittsburghracer]

Around here the reasons for quitting iron, and really all porting work, were multiple. Time involved. Mental stress because just good wasn't good enough. It had to be better than good. Mostly the physical pain involved in the wrists and arms was crippling. And those 906 heads are still on the shelf. Just the way they came off the last engine in 2011. Still a family treasure.

I still have a set of 906 heads sitting on a shelf that I ran 9.82 with back in 1991. I know I could update them with better, bigger valves since I have the tooling now to do it but I would never run them anyway. But I just can’t bring myself to sell them. Lol

 

[PRH]

I once asked Cody how many hours he thought we had in those 906 heads. That 1st set he estimated at 300 hours. It didn't take anything like that for the next set that went 336 cfm with smaller valves.

300hrs?
I don’t think I’ve ever spent even 1 tenth that amount of time porting one set of heads.

As I’ve said before........ I want the most gain....... for the beast work.

A decent set of FAST BBM heads would get about 20hrs of porting.
Then you still have all the other labor operations on top of that.

 

[pittsburghracer]

300hrs?
I don’t think I’ve ever spent even 1 tenth that amount of time porting one set of heads.

As I’ve said before........ I want the most gain....... for the beast work.

A decent set of FAST BBM heads would get about 20hrs of porting.
Then you still have all the other labor operations on top of that.

I know I work cheap as I’m not in it to make a living but I had to rethink this 300 hours post. 300 hours times 5.00 per hour equals 1500.00 right. 300 hours times 10.00 per hour equals 3000.00 or am I thinking wrong. I wonder what his hourly rate is??? Damn!!!

 

[PRH]

He admitted the next set took way less time.
But what’s way less time? 50hrs?

For me........ it’s gonna be way way way way way way way.....way..... less time.

I recently bowl blended a set of iron BBC Merlin heads.
Took a bit over 3hrs.
That’s just about the right amount of iron porting.

 

[pittsburghracer]

He admitted the next set took way less time.
But what’s way less time? 50hrs?

For me........ it’s gonna be way way way way way way way.....way..... less time.

I recently bowl blended a set of iron BBC Merlin heads.
Took a bit over 3hrs.
That’s just about the right amount of iron porting.

Last set of cast iron heads I did were small block Chevy Dart Platinum heads for a friend. But honestly I can’t remember how much time I had in them. I know I really liked that head though.

 

[IQ52]

The development time for the good heads took him approximately two months of work.

It included destroyed heads before finishing the good ones. The amount of my time on valve jobs with various valve sizes and the flowbench testing each variation after he gave the head to me isn't even in the time estimate. I'd put in a bigger valve and he would rework the heads. Finally at 2.25/1.81 valves we couldn't fit in any bigger valves and we finished up the porting. Hourly rate wasn't even a worry as this set was for us......and only us. I don't even remember where the second set of heads went.

It was about trying to be the best at what we did.

The 906 heads on a 500ci 440 made 730HP with 93 octane and 15 bent valves on Comp Cams dyno. One cylinder even had 56% leak down. They still have the bent valves in them.

How many Edelbrock 440 RPM heads ever made 787 HP normally aspirated on 91 octane pump gas from 451ci? The ones I know of can be counted on one hand using only one finger. Uh, the index finger.....not the middle one.

The RHS X heads made 629 HP/572 TQ on a 424/360 on 91 octane pump gas from the Stinker Station.

The effort never turned out to be financially worth it and the ego stroke was fleeting.

I wish I'd quit reading these damn threads.

 

[m79ded]

The development time for the good heads took him approximately two months of work.

It included destroyed heads before finishing the good ones. The amount of my time on valve jobs with various valve sizes and the flowbench testing each variation after he gave the head to me isn't even in the time estimate. I'd put in a bigger valve and he would rework the heads. Finally at 2.25/1.81 valves we couldn't fit in any bigger valves and we finished up the porting. Hourly rate wasn't even a worry as this set was for us......and only us. I don't even remember where the second set of heads went.

It was about trying to be the best at what we did.

The 906 heads on a 500ci 440 made 730HP with 93 octane and 15 bent valves on Comp Cams dyno. One cylinder even had 56% leak down. They still have the bent valves in them.

How many Edelbrock 440 RPM heads ever made 787 HP normally aspirated on 91 octane pump gas from 451ci? The ones I know of can be counted on one hand using only one finger. Uh, the index finger.....not the middle one.

The RHS X heads made 629 HP/572 TQ on a 424/360 on 91 octane pump gas from the Stinker Station.

The effort never turned out to be financially worth it and the ego stroke was fleeting.

I wish I'd quit reading these damn threads.

Your input is very informative and no doubt that the amount of work you and your son and shop put in cannot be quantified. Your efforts produced results that are practically unequalled.

 

[IQ52]

Even crazier......a couple of days ago I got a $5,100 offer for the 906 heads.....turned it down.

 

[PRH]

Jim, I applaud yours and Cody’s efforts.

I felt like I was doing a “good job” on the stuff I was porting, but always knew there were more dedicated guys in the business than myself.
The true craftsmen of the business.

I just didn’t/don’t like doing it enough....... to do it for free.

 

[PRH]

Even crazier......a couple of days ago I got a $5,100 offer for the 906 heads.....turned it down.

I’m not that sentimental.
I’ve probably done 10+ sets of heads for myself, that I had sitting on a shelf ready to go.
Someone would call looking for something....... and out the door they’d go.

Maybe I’d be more attached to them if I had as much time as you do into a set.