For that reason we are going to have them CNC ported. About 40-50 hours have been spent porting an upper and lower port along with an exhaust port and chambers. This has allowed us to spend more development time on the ports than would be possible on a head to head basis. The head has been delivered to the shop that will do the porting and they will be starting on the fixture, then capturing data from the head we provided.

The final cost will likely be less than the cost to hand port with quicker delivery time.

Let me know if you are interested since we may need to do up to 10 pairs to keep the price in line.

I don't know if it's a novel approach to use CNC to conduct port work but one that I have never heard of before (not that I know anything). I must say the theory is brilliant.

The objective of porting is to remove castings and other marks or to enlarge or reshape ports to a desired outcome. To increase flow. Where this would be difficult is in getting even consistent results by hand.(even with an experienced guy) The CNC would produce the same result time after time and not have to answer the phone or talk to a customers or get tired etc etc.....

It's a logical next step for people who want just a little bit more. Mass produced porting. Henry Ford would be smiling. Production usually means a reduction in price? Right  

A question (always a question) Once you have the port (and head) dimensions you could offer different levels of porting (two or three) by just removing more material?  I can imagine a range of porting requirement by customers.

Just a suggestion.    

Cheers

Warren 

Regarding port sizes and/or finish, what works on a race engine isn’t necessarily what’s best for a street motor.   Cubic inch of the engine also falls into all of this.  There’s not a single ‘fit all’ when it comes to doing a single port design for the heads.  For the race engines, ports are typically increased in size for upper end power but this comes at the expense of low end torque which is what is needed for low rpm running.  If an overdrive transmission is being used, then that 1800-2200 rpm driving range becomes increasingly important and heads with ‘race ports’ will not be happy in that rpm range.

I’m glad that John is offering the ported versions for those of us that are racing the heads but for those of you that are interested in driving the engines on a daily basis, you’ll be much happier with the aluminum heads as they come out of the box.  Although offering different levels of porting would be nice, it's just not cost feasible.  If you’re on the drag strip or in a road race where the engine will be operating in the upper rpm ranges, then ported heads will shine assuming the rest of the engine is upgraded accordingly.

Why not incorporate these changes into the castings? Ted is 100% correct. We need to be able to sell the heads to any Y-Block owner, even if they only want them as replacement heads for a stock 55 T-Bird 292. One size fits all just won't work. The ports in the standard heads are small enough to work on a stock engine and are still capable of 400+HP on a well built engine. CNC porting is for the people who are going to race or just want more than everybody else.

Theoretically, we could make a second set of core boxes  incorporating the modified ports but then we would have standard head castings and race head castings. This would cost 1000's of dollars and there would be a limited-run premium on the race heads anyway. Plus, how many of each to order? Worse yet, what if the the foundry gets confused and casts heads with race exhaust and standard intake ports? Race upper, standard lower port?

With regard to various levels of porting it isn't as easy as you might expect. A head must be ported to that level, upper, lower, exhaust and chamber. The information must be captured with a digitizing probe. The program must be massaged to remove excess information and to join the information from the intake gasket side and the valve seat end of the port. No probe can can get the entire port from one end. So, other than the fixture work and some basic dimensions, its kind of like starting over.

THis is Keith Cornell over in NY.

The porting shop is taking data off the sample head now. We expect to deliver the partially machined castings to them sometime next week. I'm not certain exactly how fast they can finish their work but it sounds like no more than 2 weeks.

It appears that we will need to do the CNC ported heads 10 pairs at a time. This means that after we run this initial batch through there will be some lead time until the following batch.

           Scotty here from Australia, I placed and paid a deposit for a set of your heads, back when you asked for the first lot, I said at the time i was not in a rush, and still prepared to wait some more, as I would like to put my hand up for a set of the CNC,d heads please, as I plan to be using them with a roots blower set-up. These things just keep getting better don't they guys, WOW!

Sounds good John,let me know when they are done,& ship them directly to Ted.

I hope you've got good parts in that short block!

We will be shipping some heads soon but we still don't have enough castings to cover everyone.

We are converting the core boxes for the heads so the sand cores can be made @ Edelbrock. This will save time on future orders and the other core shop was beating the boxes to death. Unbelievable how core shops and foundries treat patterns and core boxes! They seem to consider them sacrificial. 

Finally got the timing cover pattern to a new foundry on Thursday so sometime this summer we will get some castings.

While in Santa Fe Springs I finally got to see the new lathe I bought in December! Just loaded the old one on a flatbed so we finally have room for the new one.

John (or anyone) have you ever considered modifying the timing covers for water flow as the Fase II Argentine covers are.
Here is a link to previous post I did and did get much response.

http://www.y-blocksforever.com/forums/Topic55718-3-1.aspx

Just wondering your thoughts or if someone have done some experimentation.

marv

Don W 

re timing cover   Duck was looking at a serpentine system which stirred the one grey cell, does a serpentine system require a reverse rotation water pump?    or is it the timing cover that gives the direction ie  the dam at the end of the outlet in the timing cover? then the question is could a timing cover be designed which had a dam both ends of the outlet that would allow you to gind/remove whichever you didn't want

or have i totally misunderstood water pump operation??

on a learning curve

stuey

thanks for opening my eyes/mind

stuey