Speedmaster Small block porting tips and results Part 1

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Yes. Chamber work and pushing the common wall over are next on the schedule. I hope to get out there sometime today.
Watch how much the air speeds up when working the chamber. Also, if you leave slight ridge and don't blend the chamber into the top cut, you can slow down the reverse flow. Then bring the flow in good after .250 lift. Helps power production down low. I get better flow with less work using the SM castings. They also have more metal in them in certain spots than the eddy heads allowing for better shaping of things. The throat is large enough to go to a 2.055 intake valve also, only needs a slight increase to get that 90%.
 
View attachment 1715443478 View attachment 1715443479 Sorry I’m not an artist so I hope you guys understand this.
Thank yor for these airspeed numbers.

View attachment 1715443480 This will be a little harder to understand from my drawling but these are the airspeeds across the bottom of the shortside. Look at how the number jumped on the left side (pushrod) after opening up “the pinch” and letting the air flow tighter against the wall. Now it’s begging for more area at the shortside so I will remove the head bolt bulge and push the common wall over, shape the bowl, and open the combustion chamber up around the valves.

Mind pushes water out of the tube at 450 fps......also require ear plugs and a head muffs to withstand the noise:eek:

Not necessarily. A Home porter could take the above info, do it, and have an idea where his head would measure up. The average person doesn’t look into a port and notice the common wall tilts in as it gets closer to the shortside, the floor tilts up as it gets closer, the roof tilts down as it gets closer. If I can help a guy see this and show him or her how to address it maybe guys won’t be afraid to try porting. Who knows they may get the bug like I did and build their own flowbench too. Porting is becoming a lost art and someone may be the next guy to design a cnc program.


Let’s take a step back for a second. Brett Miller an East Coast Head porter just did a small block Mopar Super Stock Edelbrock post on his Facebook group. Their is one legal Head from Edelbrock for this class and can be seen on Summits website. Now you can take that head and modify it but it still has to come in with an under 170 cc runner. His welding buddy added several layers of weld on the floor of the runner so he could raise the port and move the rocker and pushrod over to improve air flow and still stay safely under 170cc. They also had to use a 2.02 intake valve. When finished they flowed around 280 cfm. Shape, runner cc, and valve size dictate turbulence and flow. The head he ported flowed around 40 cfm more than out of the box but that labor for staying within the Super Stock rules come at a cost. Someone asked him and he quoted a 10,000.00-12,000.00 price. I won’t post his pictures but please check out his work on Facebook. The shape of the exhaust port totally changed.


That's the balancing act that you do over and over again. air speed over cfm! If you can gain cfm without to much air speed you win. if you gain air speed but is turbulence. you ground in the wrong place. and you won't know until you try it!
And around and a round you go!
PBR knows were those "Do Not Grind" spots are and where the cfm flow spots are. So he can grind in several spot that he knows it needs. The fps probes just tell you if your thinking is in the ballpark.

Thanks for doing all of this pittsburghracer:thankyou::thumbsup::thumbsup:
 
Watch how much the air speeds up when working the chamber. Also, if you leave slight ridge and don't blend the chamber into the top cut, you can slow down the reverse flow. Then bring the flow in good after .250 lift. Helps power production down low. I get better flow with less work using the SM castings. They also have more metal in them in certain spots than the eddy heads allowing for better shaping of things. The throat is large enough to go to a 2.055 intake valve also, only needs a slight increase to get that 90%.



I hear there is less water in the floor but honestly I’ve gotten to where I’ve tried to avoid the floor on Edelbrock heads anyway. The short side is so pathetically small if you get to aggressive it makes shaping the short side harder. I promised myself I wouldn’t lean on these to hard as I have 5-6 set of Edelbrock heads here but I do have a set of 2.08 valves that are used up and could be cut down for these heads. For now I stick to simple mods to possibly help a few of our members. It sounds like you too are unhappy with the Edelbrock castings of today.
 
I hear there is less water in the floor but honestly I’ve gotten to where I’ve tried to avoid the floor on Edelbrock heads anyway. The short side is so pathetically small if you get to aggressive it makes shaping the short side harder. I promised myself I wouldn’t lean on these to hard as I have 5-6 set of Edelbrock heads here but I do have a set of 2.08 valves that are used up and could be cut down for these heads. For now I stick to simple mods to possibly help a few of our members. It sounds like you too are unhappy with the Edelbrock castings of today.



You are a glutton for punishment!!!!!!
 
would the design of intake(SP,DP or TR)change the flow in different locations?
Yes, as said before, but why. In PBR’s post below, he gives examples of a few intakes. Take some time out to look at these intakes and notice the runners.
Yes. Intakes like a LD340 will knock a heads flowing over 300 to under 260 real quick. But it will come around some with a gasket match and plenum blend. A Victor340 ported will only drop 8-10 max if done right. An Indy intake I redrilled and ported actually took one of my highly modified Edelbrock heads from 315 to a very smooth 318-320. I haven’t tried this intake on an engine yet.
That Indy is a heck of an intake huh?!
I think you are asking the correct question. The answer is yes. That's why I never get too excited about certain things on a flow bench.

Adding an intake (the better the intake, the better the results) changes most everything.
Amen. It’s nice to see good head flow, but what is connected to it can really hurt it.

@abdywgn, Most here not racing will use a RPM intake and that’s fine for the street since your really trying to focus in on torque for the street. But to use all of what could be available from the head, an intake going through your hood is basically a guarantee!

In racing, the straighter the air/fuel mixture path is to the heads port, the better off you will be. This will also aid the head in actually flowing more than it did on the bench. At this moment, the Indy single plane 4bbl., the MP W7/8/9 single 4bbl. and a tunnel ram are the best power makers.
 
Here’s what I’d like to see PBR do with this head......
After he has gone thru the step by step process and gotten an intake port completed to the level he is happy with..... I’d like to see him do another intake port in the same way...... only do it from start to finish more or less in one shot, and keep track of how long it took.
Then you’d get a better idea of what you could expect to pay a shop to duplicate that level of work.

Keep in mind he has done a number of these Ede type heads before, and already knows his way around these ports....... so how long it takes him to do the work would likely be less than someone who’s tackling a set of them for the first time...... even if they are experienced at porting heads.
I would be shocked to think that you don't have a great idea of how much a full-port job would be on a set of heads? Valve grind everything that needs taken care of for an all-out effort...????.. without shipping back and forth of course?..
 
I would be shocked to think that you don't have a great idea of how much a full-port job would be on a set of heads? Valve grind everything that needs taken care of for an all-out effort...????.. without shipping back and forth of course?..
Are you asking him?
 
I would be shocked to think that you don't have a great idea of how much a full-port job would be on a set of heads?

It’s his thread...... and he’s doing it how he wants.
So, it just makes sense he comes up with the time estimate for how long it takes him to do the job he’s outlining in this thread.
(If he feels like it of course)

Also, he’s gotten more flow out of that style of head than I have....... by a fair amount.

I’ve done several sets that made nice power and went pretty good in the cars they were in...... but the flow wasn’t anything special.

The Ede’s are pretty painless to get into that 270cfm range...... and they’ll make over 550hp like that on a bracket race engine.

My current pecking order(based in large part on current costs) for this type of head, if I were going to put them on something myself(based on a 4” or longer crank)......
500hp or less -unported heads with good valve job and bowls blended
500-550hp-cnc ported with good valve job
550hp plus- TF heads

It’s mostly based on economics. At those hp levels, the next better head just makes more economic sense if one is paying for it, as opposed to doing it for them self.
 
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PBR. Thank you for posting this info. It's nice to follow you alone since you know what your doing and sharing it with us. I am porting mine now and following what you do and taking measurements so I can make all ports the same. Thank you again.
 
I will certainly echo the sentiments of appreciation to PBR and everybody else involved in this search for flow numbers and optimization of the SB Speedmaster heads. If i'm correct and unless I missed a post all of this relates to the potential of the unported ootb heads. Of all that had purchased these i'm in the small minority of those that had actually purchased the bare CNC ported version's which makes me wonder if that was a mistake or if I indeed got the additional bang for the buck that I sought to achieve by spending the additional $$$.

I've admittedly found this read very interesting but find myself left with a bit of an uncomfortable question mark about the heads sitting on my benchtop.Though a prototype machinist whose source of income revolves around CNC programs and cutting tools, as a practicle man with no head porting experience coming up on age 60 I really can't justify the investment in a flow bench and related equipment necessary to validate the port reshaping by removal or addition of material and to that end I find myself quite envious of PBR's experience and aptitude which he has truly earned thru the labors of his efforts. Now if y'all got a rig and need some customized deep water completion tools I can help in that arena.

All that said and obviously if PBR is comfortable with it, I would certainly be willing to send my CNC ported versions off to see where they stand ootb and where we could go from there.
 
It’s his thread...... and he’s doing it how he wants.
So, it just makes sense he comes up with the time estimate for how long it takes him to do the job he’s outlining in this thread.
(If he feels like it of course)

Also, he’s gotten more flow out of that style of head than I have....... by a fair amount.

I’ve done several sets that made nice power and went pretty good in the cars they were in...... but the flow wasn’t anything special.

The Ede’s are pretty painless to get into that 270cfm range...... and they’ll make over 550hp like that on a bracket race engine.

My current pecking order(based in large part on current costs) for this type of head, if I were going to put them on something (based on a 4” or longer crank)......
500hp or less -unported heads with good valve job and bowls blended
500-550hp-cnc ported with good valve job
550hp plus- TF heads

It’s mostly based on economics. At those hp levels, the next better head just makes more economic sense if one is paying for it, as opposed to doing it for them self.



As far as time not including flowbench time I’m going to say 30 minutes so far removing the shortside ridge, roughing in the 30 and 15 degree seat angle, sanding roll the intake port, and opening up the pinch to 1.015 from .930 and blending the radius. I’m a slow Head porter and hardly ever use a single aluminum burr. I would rather use a double cut burr, dip in Transmission fluid, and run my burr slower. It took me longer to open the pinch to 1.015 as it was more aimed towards a safe number for home porters. I would usually just sleeve it and open it up till I kiss the tubing. No measuring needed that way.
 
I think you are asking the correct question. The answer is yes. That's why I never get too excited about certain things on a flow bench.

Adding an intake (the better the intake, the better the results) changes most everything.
It would be interesting to measure the flow in an actual cylinder as it actually operates:crank rotating,piston going up and down and the cam opening the valves in time. It would be one large electric motor to do that OR perhaps attach another gasoline engine to run it. And IF this could be done, have variables like "lobe timing" change to see what effect it has. Guess it could be done through the spark plug hole. Maybe this is more for the cam than air flow. But it was a thought that needed out of my head. Thanks!
 
I will certainly echo the sentiments of appreciation to PBR and everybody else involved in this search for flow numbers and optimization of the SB Speedmaster heads. If i'm correct and unless I missed a post all of this relates to the potential of the unported ootb heads. Of all that had purchased these i'm in the small minority of those that had actually purchased the bare CNC ported version's which makes me wonder if that was a mistake or if I indeed got the additional bang for the buck that I sought to achieve by spending the additional $$$.

I've admittedly found this read very interesting but find myself left with a bit of an uncomfortable question mark about the heads sitting on my benchtop.Though a prototype machinist whose source of income revolves around CNC programs and cutting tools, as a practicle man with no head porting experience coming up on age 60 I really can't justify the investment in a flow bench and related equipment necessary to validate the port reshaping by removal or addition of material and to that end I find myself quite envious of PBR's experience and aptitude which he has truly earned thru the labors of his efforts. Now if y'all got a rig and need some customized deep water completion tools I can help in that arena.

All that said and obviously if PBR is comfortable with it, I would certainly be willing to send my CNC ported versions off to see where they stand ootb and where we could go from there.

I sent mine off and had them flowed already, numbers here Small Block Head Flow Chart
 
PBR. Thank you for posting this info. It's nice to follow you alone since you know what your doing and sharing it with us. I am porting mine now and following what you do and taking measurements so I can make all ports the same. Thank you again.


Thanks for the thanks guys. I’ve ruined heads learning to port heads so if I can help guys do a few simple mods, gain confidence, and run better, we all as Mopar lovers win. I even caught myself whistling to my “Kill Bill” soundtrack so I’m enjoying time in my shop again.
 
Okay, so to reach this point, you’re at 4hrs labor to do the 8 intake ports.
You’re still planning on going a little further with the intake port though, right?

Are you planning any tutorial for the ex port and chamber?

I’d like to see what you do with the chamber and what it does to the flow.
 
Okay, so to reach this point, you’re at 4hrs labor to do the 8 intake ports.
You’re still planning on going a little further with the intake port though, right?

Are you planning any tutorial for the ex port and chamber?

I’d like to see what you do with the chamber and what it does to the flow.



Yes more intake side work coming. My exhaust side work differs from many on how to go about it. Several years ago my son and I went to a 2 day (app 14 hour) class on head porting given by Darren Morgan at Columbus Ohio. In honestly it was way over my head as it used a lot of Calculus formulas and even the special calculator I bought for the class was a waste of money in my hands. I loved the class but wish it was actual hands on experience instead of book learning. With about 1 hour of class time left someone raised their hand and asked if we were going to touch on the exhaust side and he said soon. 15 minutes later we discussed exhaust port shape which most of us agreed was bellshaped. He then said to make the exhaust exit as big as possible, shape your port, and worry more about exhaust speed more than flow numbers. A quiet 325 FPS port will expel air especially when being pushed out. I honestly hate to waste time switching my bench over to flow the exhaust port as is out of the box but I may do it tomorrow just to prove my thinking.
 
Yes more intake side work coming. My exhaust side work differs from many on how to go about it. Several years ago my son and I went to a 2 day (app 14 hour) class on head porting given by Darren Morgan at Columbus Ohio. In honestly it was way over my head as it used a lot of Calculus formulas and even the special calculator I bought for the class was a waste of money in my hands. I loved the class but wish it was actual hands on experience instead of book learning. With about 1 hour of class time left someone raised their hand and asked if we were going to touch on the exhaust side and he said soon. 15 minutes later we discussed exhaust port shape which most of us agreed was bellshaped. He then said to make the exhaust exit as big as possible, shape your port, and worry more about exhaust speed more than flow numbers. A quiet 325 FPS port will expel air especially when being pushed out. I honestly hate to waste time switching my bench over to flow the exhaust port as is out of the box but I may do it tomorrow just to prove my thinking.


LOL. Yep. A quite exhaust port is usually a happy exhaust port. Shape shape shape.
 
I would be shocked to think that you don't have a great idea of how much a full-port job would be on a set of heads? Valve grind everything that needs taken care of for an all-out effort...????.. without shipping back and forth of course?..


It depends on the heads Jpar. I wouldn't touch a set of CI heads for under 2500. And add in another 1000-1200 for the intake manifold.

A W2 head would start there and go up.
A W5 without welding would start at 1500 and go up depending on application and how much welding I had to do.

The PC/SM BBM heads I did were a 1K friend deal, and the 1200 dollar intake manifold port job I charged 500 bucks for made a 2200 dollar deal a money losing 1700 buck grindathon.

It can run higher, lower or anywhere in between.
 
It depends on the heads Jpar. I wouldn't touch a set of CI heads for under 2500. And add in another 1000-1200 for the intake manifold.

A W2 head would start there and go up.
A W5 without welding would start at 1500 and go up depending on application and how much welding I had to do.

The PC/SM BBM heads I did were a 1K friend deal, and the 1200 dollar intake manifold port job I charged 500 bucks for made a 2200 dollar deal a money losing 1700 buck grindathon.

It can run higher, lower or anywhere in between.
Thank you for making my point...
 
Sounds like the cnc version with a good valve job would be the way to go for us non-porters.
 
I thought that these SM heads were a copy of the Eddies?? So, would the regular, unported SM heads flow about the same as a OOTB Eddy?? ?? ? Flow numbers on the web says so…..
 
I thought that these SM heads were a copy of the Eddies?? So, would the regular, unported SM heads flow about the same as a OOTB Eddy?? ?? ? Flow numbers on the web says so…..


I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Edelbrock heads out of the box are crap now and I will never buy another set. As far as cheap heads go here is my pecking order for guys that can’t do porting work or valve jobs

ProMaxx or Shockers
Speedmaster cnc’d or regular and I would recommend getting a valve job done to them

ProMaxx finish their heads much nicer but at a higher cost.
 
I thought that these SM heads were a copy of the Eddies?? So, would the regular, unported SM heads flow about the same as a OOTB Eddy?? ?? ? Flow numbers on the web says so…..

First, let me say it’s important to keep in mind that flow numbers that come from different benches shouldn’t be looked as data that can be compared “apples to apples”.
It can’t.

Even if the benches themselves were very close to each other, each shop is using their own radius air entry, bore adapter, etc.
All of these things, including the differences in the numbers produced by the bench itself are why it’s not “apples to apples”.

I say that as a preface to this......
On my bench, with my bore adapter and my radius air entry, an ootb RPM has better numbers than an ootb SM head....... in the lift range where most people are going to be running ootb heads(under .550 lift).
Pretty much all of that difference is in the valve job.
From a flow perspective, the Ede valve job is better.

Take an assembled SM head, recut the seats, back cut the valves, do some very minor blending....... it would probably equal/outflow the Ede Head from top to bottom.

I had to dig pretty far back in my notes.
There can be a noticeable spread between the 4 ports on these heads. I usually test the #1 cylinder.
It’s been a while since I flowed an ootb E head(60779).....
4.00 bore, no tube on ex:

Lift———in/ex
.100—— 64/49
.200——126/97
.300——185/133
.400——227/156
.500——250/166
 
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My point gets to be how many of us own a flow bench to test our home Port job and how good we're doing it? Like stated grind a little test a little do this or do that a little and test.. how would a guy at home watching and listening to all this great knowledge on how to port and where to Port if it could be interpreted know if they made any difference or in some cases made things worse?...
I'll go ahead and say the elephant in my head this seems more like chest beating that I can Port great and I have a flow machine and I know what I'm doing more so then this is an exact guide at exactly how much and where and how with pictures pointing out the areas a guy with no experience or very little and no tools or very little can get a lot out of these cheap heads doing some simple hot rodding at home... Sorry no offense I appreciate everybody's work and efforts but it's just what goes on in my head...
It's all very interesting to read about...
 
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