I've spent many hours porting the heads by hand. It's not "professional", but I doubt you can get much better. The valve covers were a pain to sand due to the grooves. It had a turqoise or sea green color under the black. I'm guessing it came off of an old Impala or Belair. They aren't from the Chevelle originally. Eh, maybe it was a weird kind of primer. All I know for sure is that it was stubborn. This Chevelle used to have a 3-on-the-tree manual transmission, but I got the Turbo 350 Automatic from the 77 Chevy car we've had sitting around for a while. I really need to find another steering column, but it works until I can find one/get money to buy it. I thought about putting in a B&M floor shifter, but I really don't want to cut any holes in my car; at least not through the metal. I'm hoping this engine I'm building has about 400 horsepower or so. I'm a little worried about putting this Holley vacuum secondary carburetor on it. I bet it will work fine, but I really want some good take off to beat those little rice burner high school kids. The 1933 Plymouth truck, "The Bee", my grandfather's truck, has about 450 or 475 HP. It used to run mid-high 9's in 1/4 mile. It's been slightly detuned from when he lived in Vernon. He used to race it from time to time. My car will be decent competition for his truck with the engine im building. I may be getting a cam that's a little too powerful, but it allows room to grow if I want to upgrade to roller rockers and lifters. This car is going to be so sweet when it gets done. As they say, though, a true hotrod is never done. I agree with that. Even the port job I did could be improved. I could cut out more metal from the insides, but it gets dangerously close to the water jackets if I do. I'd rather be able to put a few years in the engine before it dies. I think I'm pushing my transmission close to the limits on horsepower. I may have to find a 400 to put in it later. I need to find out what gear ratio the rear end has. It should be fine. I think I need a midrange rear-end so I get good take off and high top end speeds. The stock ratio should be decent enough, since it's a Chevelle. Lol, 50 cent positrack... I love that. It might cost more than 50 cents though. I'm not sure if I should go with a steel spacer or go with some brass. My grandfather says steel works fine and he's always used it. My dad says I should go with aluminum or copper because they're softer and if they wear the metal shavings can be crushed by the gears instead of being embedded. I really am uncertain. All I know is that I'm going to cry if my rear axle gets messed up.
This was my first set of cast iron heads to port/polish. I did the head on my old Escort GT (I miss my car) with the 1.9L and aluminum head. I did the aluminum head on my dad's 95 Tracer. It's so easy to port. I've thought about trying to find people who want it done. Heh, our shop was supposed to be a business making hotrods, but it never got off the ground. My grandfather's health bottomed out and he spent his money on medical bills. Anyway, it's all about airflow. Porting allows your engine to breathe a lot better by making the holes larger and smoothing out the edges so they're round. The exhaust you polish for smoother maximum flow, but the intake you shouldn't polish. The intake needs some turbulence to mix the fuel and the air. You can cut a lot of material out of a set of V8 heads. I might take pictures of my heads to show you. You also should match the ports to the size of your gaskets to help maximize flow and performance. It's estimated that I added 60HP to my engine just from the porting. That's a massive amount of horsepower for something so simple. Keep in mind that this isn't exactly "bolt-on" power. You have to remove the heads from the engine to do this work. It takes a few days to do until you get better. In my opinion, it's well worth the time and effort. Any engine I build for myself will have ported heads. The porting I am doing on the intake manifold won't be nearly as involved. I'm going to match the ports to the gasket and then maybe take out a small amount of material from the holes themselves to help maximize the airflow. That's what it's all about. Get the air in, get the air out, ASAP! Oh, I also cleaned up the water jackets a little bit to get smoother and a little more waterflow. Keep the engine cooler if at all possible.
I am so excited about having this car running again. It's been my dream since we got the car. I knew it would be mine eventually and finally it is. Well the title isn't in my name yet, but it will be. I'll pull my engine out before I let someone else drive it and take credit for my work. My dad swears by glass packs, but I'm all about depth and tone. I love the way a good set of duals with Flowmaster mufflers sounds. Supposedly the mufflers on the car allow better flow than Flowmasters. My grandfather owned and operated an exhaust shop for 30 years or something in Vernon. I'll take his word. Besides, even if they don't provide more flow, it will be very close to the same, which is fine with me. They sound really nice. My mom used to drive this car. It had a 305 in it with out porting and a 2 barrell carb with a worn out cam. She still got lots of looks and it still sounded great. One thing I noticed about porting the exhaust on my Escort is the difference in tone. It made a deeper sound and sounded wicked with the Magnaflow muffler we put on it. While I liked my car, I wouldn't want another Escort. I would take mine back if it was in the condition before my wreck. High performance with about 30mpg. Tough to beat, even with new cars. They need to re-open Kennedale's race track so I can legally see what this thing will do. You have no idea how excited I am about having this car. For one, it will be in my name and be mine! Two, I've put a lot of work into it. I'm proud of what I have done so far and can't wait to see it light up the rear tires simultaneously. It makes me laugh everytime my dad calls it a grandma car that will blow your doors off. Maybe it's how he says it. It's just makes me laugh. Racing is in my blood. Hopefully I can find a cocky high schooler who thinks he's tough stuff. There's a guy down the road with an early 80s Chevy truck that sounds really tough. I want to see what he's got just to have some fun.