DIY Head porting

Anyone doing head porting DIY?

I've been doing head porting for different engines by myself - it's really a passion of mine. Just finished 2JZ head fir 1200hp...

Is there anyone doing it DIY here too?

What tools are you using, what rules are you applying, what challenges do you face?

I wouldn't love to have a designated thread here to discuss it and help each other to get more power))

Head porting is considered a dark art by many eh! It's not a topic we cover at all so not sure how much info you will get from others on here, but if you haven't caught them already a few podcast guests have shared some thoughts on this too as well as Andre talking about his own (minimal) experience porting heads.

David Localio (Headgames Motorworks) - https://www.hpacademy.com/blog/077-art-or-science-head-porting-explained-podcast/

Tyler Hassing (Force Engineering) - https://www.hpacademy.com/blog/035-simple-engine-building-mistakes-that-could-cost-you-thousands-podcast/

Terry Radbourne (Bourne HPP) - https://www.hpacademy.com/blog/105-is-hondas-k-series-really-the-greatest-4-cylinder-ever-made-podcast/

Unfortunately the earlier ones don't have timestamps, but if you don't want to listen to the whole thing you can search for specific words within the YouTube releases transcript, just in case that helps.

Thank you very much. I've listened to David Localio podcast with Andre- very useful information. Moreover I've been following David on YouTube and picked up tonns of information.

I realise that head porting is very controversial thing (last big example DV vs Eric Weingartner) but it would be nice if people would want to share real life experience. I definitely wouldn't mind to share my experience and knowledge.

I have done some, to good effect, but it's been quite a while, other than a basic clean-up on the 'shopping basket' when the head had to come off for a leaking core plug.

Just the basic tools, first was with a Dremel - took DAYS! - and later an air die grinder (which was 'ported'), variety of stones and cutters, slotted rod for emery, or W&D, strips for smoothing and blending. Measurement/analysis by eye for basic shape and where to remove material, finger/thumb for comparison and feeling the contours, noggin for using the prior tools effectively and thinking - like the air mass's movement, velocities, and the effect of cross-section and radii on it..

My main influence for the work was Smokey Yunick, with the area around the seats, and the valves themselves, being my main concern.

I've done a few heads and what really caught me was the very first porting job I did on 1.8L ZZ Toyota Engine. I could never expect that simple porting job would make such a huge difference... It turned to be a completely different car after that- fast, responsive and reliable... New dynamic of it didn't match its displacement... Yet, nobody still believes that this is a car with just 1.8L engine)))

David's content is great, and for sure hopefully over time this thread becomes a wee gold mine of knowledge itself =)

You've probably seen it, but Jafromobile did a good video on the topic too some time ago from a more DIY perspective.

Awesome that your own first foray into it gave such dramatically great results too Shota, and a great engine to do that with too in regards to relatively low risk vs high reward.

I've made a note for Andre just in case there is a chance to get another good guest to share some insight on DIY head porting during his next filming trip.

Thank you very much.

Came across the picture of stock Porsche GT3 RS heads. Interesting...

If you search TK or Tony King on performanceforums and possibly some other sites you should find everything from Australian pushrod V8s, to Japanese performance 4 valves to ex aircraft/tank engines IIRC. Think the last big thread was an engine going into a tractor pull type vehicle. Incredible work.