Has any one ported and polished their heads on their 4.2l V6?I have an extra set of head lying around and thought that I would give it a try! I am also going to get a 3-angle valve job.What do you guy's think? Right now I have an Air Force One intake,throttle body spacer,electric fans, and a Spin Tech si/do muffler! Looking for some under drive pullies and possibly a performance cam for it! Any help would be appreciatted! Thanks Rob

 

What do you want to know??? I am working on my own set as we speak.

I know TONS of people that port these heads... on 4.2 ported heads will yield 16-22rwhp and 24-28rwhp w/ a 1.56" 7mm exhaust valve. Match a cam to the flow specs and you pick up another 16-20rwhp.

I know one guy that gained 66rwhp / 40rwtq on heads, cam, and fully ported upper and lower intake!!!

Any questions?

here's a sample of som of my work....

 

Tally how much does something like that run?

 

www.supersixmotorsports.com will sell you an cam, ported heads, and ported upper and lower intake for about $2000, and u can get $450 core the core deposit. The problem I have is gettin it installed, where too, and for how much

SC

 

Anywhere from $1,200 - $2,000 for a complete swap minus labor
__________________________________________________ ___

Supersix's price is way over-rated for what you get (stock valve sizes)... also, they want you to use the stock springs and pushrods with their cam which is NOT good. Our stock springs are only good for a .475 lift MAX... most aftermarket camshaft grinds well exceed this and will cause valve float at higher rpm's (Like when racing!!!)

I hightly recommend Robert Greene for one hell of a port and polish job for a great price! Check out his website RGR Porting. He is cheaper than supersix's price and his overall finish job is alot nicer. For about the same price of Supersix's price he can get you a larger exhaust valve done right which is really where these heads need the most work.

Pete Cambell now offers CNC Porting on these heads which are port balanced to within 1%!!! His price is $800 for a set (service only).

RPM Mustangs offers a complete swap kit which includes all gaskets and bolts needed for a head swap.

I also know some guys who have made a complete How-To Step-By-Step video that can guide you to do it yourselfs. It's really not that hard to do and I wish alot more of the 4.2 F150 guys do this. I think they charge $15 shipped for the video, I can get you guys an email address if interested.

I just recently did a head/intake/cam swap on a 00' 5spd Mustang about a month ago. Here's a picture of it tore down to bare block. Btw.... same exact block as our engines:

 

Selective porting and polishing is always a good thing, as long as the material is removed from the correct areas and in the correct amounts. It's not necessary to go *****-out and hog the ports to bee-jesus. A good gasket/port matching and grinding down the EGR humps should suffice unless you're talking a full-tilt racer or a forced induction motor. The power you get mostly comes in the selection of the valves and their sizes. Port size and shape are important, though.

You want to get valves that have the stems relieved (back-cut). This helps speed the air flow and increase the quantity of air moved into the cylinders. Tulip cutting the back-side also helps reduce valve weight and improve airflow efficiency. Three angle valve jobs are very good, but again, if MAXIMUM output is your goal then 4-6 angles help the flow numbers quite a bit. Make sure that your head surface is given .005"-.008" pass on the planar mill to flatten them out- slight warping is not what you want once you've done all this groovy machine work.

Talley is doing the right thing for his heads. He is planning on a Forced Induction set-up, and he needs all the port volume he can get. And then some. But for a normally aspirated application (this includes the nitrous boys, too). . .bigger isn't always better.

Also, be wary of machine shops that take heavy amounts of material from the inside of the port radius. This is a sign of an inexperienced machinist. Those nice big, perfectly shaped, polished ports may look good sitting on the bench, but they will absolutely KILL your flow speed and volume. Same goes for flowbench numbers that are given at .700" (or more) lift. You will never see that kind of lift. It's a way that some shops try to hide the fact that their port job sucked and that the low lift speed and volume went in the toilet.

I suggest finding and speaking at length with a reputable performance machine shop before laying down the long green, or if you want to try it yourself, read-read-read. Practice on a set of junk heads if you want to to perfect your technique.

You won't be sorry.


---J

 

WrongdayJ:

EVERYTHING you mention "Robert Greene" knows... he has writing a port theory that explains some WILD ideas of shaping and forming the walls to increase velocity.

I am mainly practicing on this set of heads I got... they will give more power but I WILL buy a set of heads off of Robert. I have talked to him for hours on several occasions.

He comes Highly recommended by me and a bunch others.

I recommend his Basic Port Job for $300 w/ 3 angle and 1.56" exhaust valve for the best bang for the buck N/A setup. After springs, pushrods, cam and installation kit and your looking right at $1,300 for a very nice setup that will net you 35-40BHP.

One thing you must also remember is you will need to have a bigger injectors and a custom chip to go along with this.... it all adds up in price.

 

Cool.

Good cylinder head machinists are a dying breed. You are lucky to have a good one around. He sounds like he runs a quality shop. Enjoy his services while you can, though. Many (if not all) really good machinists get bought out by race teams. It just happened to my old friend Rich. Next to Dean Turk himself he was the most thorough and detail oriented machinist I know. He regularly got 45-55 hp out of stock E7TE Mustang heads using the stock valve sizes. Impressive indeed. He was the kind of guy that would work 13 extra hours on a set of heads or an intake to get 3 more hp out of it. You gotta love that. He had a passion for it, and if your guy does too, then I'll be calling him. . .soon.

Hmm. His prices seem pretty good. Let me know what you think of his work when you get your heads. I think I'm gonna be calling you this weekend to gab about this a little more.


Later,

---J

 

Anytime bro... You got my number.