WEAPON-X Tech Thread: Ported Heads - worth it or naw?
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,885
Likes: 486
From: Cin City
St. Jude Donor '14
WEAPON-X Tech Thread: Ported Heads - worth it or naw?
So, before we delve into this with factual data, I am curious to see what the community's thoughts are as far as porting the heads. I'm compiling a few builds right now to lay it all out. I have heard a lot of guys say head porting nets very little, but we also all know there is a vast difference between power under the curve and peak power.
Any head porter will tell you that CFM is for suckers as there are a lot of factors that come into play with ported heads that cannot be measured on a flow bench, such as port velocity and timing.
Any good head porter will also tell you that the LT1 and LT4 heads suffer from severe core shift and I can affirm this first hand after seeing multiple sets of CNC'ed heads from a very popular engine builder that still had the OEM casting in portions of the walls.
So, anyone buying heads that aren't hand finished, is likely leaving power on the table to begin with as these places offering cheap CNC heads are doing so for a reason
So, I'll start off with a poll while I finish compiling this!
Any head porter will tell you that CFM is for suckers as there are a lot of factors that come into play with ported heads that cannot be measured on a flow bench, such as port velocity and timing.
Any good head porter will also tell you that the LT1 and LT4 heads suffer from severe core shift and I can affirm this first hand after seeing multiple sets of CNC'ed heads from a very popular engine builder that still had the OEM casting in portions of the walls.
So, anyone buying heads that aren't hand finished, is likely leaving power on the table to begin with as these places offering cheap CNC heads are doing so for a reason
So, I'll start off with a poll while I finish compiling this!
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,885
Likes: 486
From: Cin City
St. Jude Donor '14
Ported Head Results
To bump this up, here is the validation of our stage 2 ported heads worth their money with approximately a 50whp swing. These two Whipple LT engines both have forged pistons, the same compression, the same cam, the same trans and gear ratio, same e70ish pump gas, and the ported head car has the same power nearly 500 RPMs sooner or 50whp more at any given RPM up until the shift point where they meet back up. I found this pretty interesting 
Our head porter used to work for/with GM having helped develop the LS7 head for example and to this day, he has always knocked it out of the park for us with his CNC ports and hand finishing. He is the first to say CFM is for suckers LOL as the port design, valve job, and hand blending is how to get the power!
WEAPON-X Ported Stage 2 Heads:
https://weaponxmotorsports.com/produ...nt=37648767697
Our head porter used to work for/with GM having helped develop the LS7 head for example and to this day, he has always knocked it out of the park for us with his CNC ports and hand finishing. He is the first to say CFM is for suckers LOL as the port design, valve job, and hand blending is how to get the power! WEAPON-X Ported Stage 2 Heads:
https://weaponxmotorsports.com/produ...nt=37648767697
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2018
Posts: 164
Likes: 60
From: Indiana
Ben...good updates on your ported heads. Do you have any numbers for gains on stock internal NA LT1 engine? I am running ported TB and intake w/LT headers. A cam swap is pretty extensive surgery on these engines. Wondering what ported heads would gain alone. Also...if you could PM me about an installed price and tune...I'd appreciate that. Perhaps if you havent run this setup yet, we could use my upgrade as this data set for your advertisement.
thanks - Joe
thanks - Joe
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,885
Likes: 486
From: Cin City
St. Jude Donor '14
Ben...good updates on your ported heads. Do you have any numbers for gains on stock internal NA LT1 engine? I am running ported TB and intake w/LT headers. A cam swap is pretty extensive surgery on these engines. Wondering what ported heads would gain alone. Also...if you could PM me about an installed price and tune...I'd appreciate that. Perhaps if you havent run this setup yet, we could use my upgrade as this data set for your advertisement.
thanks - Joe
thanks - Joe
but usually the airflow gains are from different cam timing events as well. We have hit 575whp with our heads/cam/headers/e85 package, so I have a feeling you might want to do the cam soon after!
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Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,885
Likes: 486
From: Cin City
St. Jude Donor '14
Slight variances in the foundry casting resulting in the ports not being identical, so CNC programs don't clean up the walls entirely. I shipped a set of heads done by a very well known place to a customer on the west coast and nearly lost him because he was so furious about how poor they looked not being cleaned up. I have pics of them somewhere from where he sent them to me. I had to get him a diff set ported by my guy and send those to him to clean up. Wasted hundreds of dollars in the process, but I wouldn't have been happy with that either. Ironically, they ended up on my compound boost ZL1 after all of that haha
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 101
Likes: 2
From: TX
I feel the short turn on these heads are laid back way to far from the factory. Anymore work done on the ssr is just going to lose airspeed. Im doing a set that im epoxying up and will be testing.
it would be best to get a cid head or tsp's new head thats coming out in a porters version and create a smaller port than factory.
it would be best to get a cid head or tsp's new head thats coming out in a porters version and create a smaller port than factory.
Instructor
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 116
Likes: 3
what size cam and was it stock converter friendly?? If so I’m interested I have a sv texS speed cam and heads package with arh long tubes , cold air , billy boat exhaust , nick wialkams 103 mm Tb and mamo ported msd intake manifold and through a a8 I’m only 535rw hp
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 4,885
Likes: 486
From: Cin City
St. Jude Donor '14
Instructor
Joined: Oct 2016
Posts: 116
Likes: 3
