Picked up my heads from the shop....and

[1QWIKBIRD]

after getting them cleaned (all the carbon in the chambers and oil residue in the ports), springs checked (all are in good shape and can handle .625 lift, if needed ), the valve job touched up, and one valve stem tip polished (when the rocker arm failed it kinda bounced around on the stem just ever so slightly) and got them flowed.

So here are the stats: 1 set of 241 castings with stage 2 porting done by Cartek probably about 2/3 years ago....stock valve sizes. (2.00I 1.55E)

Intake: Exhaust:
Lift Ported Stock Gain Ported Stock Gain
.200 145.0 134 +9 111.2 104 +7.2
.300 202.4 189 +13.4 147.5 136 +11.5
.400 244.7 222 +22.7 179.2 165 +14.2
.500 270.0 240 +30.0 196.0 179 +17.0
.600 287.7 252 +35.7 207.7 185 +22.7

So I was pretty happy with those numbers and I'd say Cartek did a pretty good job. I have no intentions of having additional port work done, but was curious what kind of gains a "Stage 2" port job would yield. So if anyone is looking to compare numbers, here is some real world data for ya.

The flowbench was a Superflow 600, which I think is the industry standard, and the test was at 28" of H2O. Bammann Racing (located in Imalystown, NJ) did all the clean-up and flowbench work.

Now its time to put it all back together.....

Chris

[foff667]

not bad for stock valves

[ZeroCool8891]

hey where can i get heads done for a good price im taking them off my 88 firebird and i would like to know and good place with a good price

[2MCHPWR]

sounds cool. so are you gonna but a "real" cam in there?

[1QWIKBIRD]

Originally Posted by 2MCHPWR

sounds cool. so are you gonna but a "real" cam in there?

nope.....that cam serves my needs very well for the moment....and the combination puts down pretty good numbers, so I'm staying put. Believe me its tough to not up the cam, but I just want to get it back together and drive the thing.....

I did find some scars inside the motor, I'll email the pics....nothing too crazy, but the valves and the pistons have definitely met each other.....I know it wasn't with these heads, cause they just got thoroughly checked and there was no damage to the valves or pushrods, but at some point in the past, maybe a missed shift?, a weak spring? or too much rpm? because on three of the pistons there are "knicks/gouges/marks" in the top of the piston there the valves likely floated and his the top of the piston....

I found the first one (number6) when I was experimenting with cleaning the top of the pistons and at first thought it was simple carbon, but low and behold there was a small amount of displaced metal (ouch) so after cleaning the top of the piston with a scotchbright pad and lots of elbow grease, I masked off the entire area and got out the air grinder and a scotch bright disk and lightly removed the ridge that existed if only to eliminate a hot spot and the potential for it to flake off and tear up the cylinder......nothing like having fun.....now I have to clean off the other 7 pistons, tap all the head bolt holes and get them clean and dry....then bolt the heads on and....and...and...well you get the idea...

Chris

[Tru2Chevy]

Ouch - the one in that third pic looks like a pretty good sized hit...

- Justin

[johnjzjz]

if you had used a degree wheel and checked the # 1 / 6 as a combo you might have found the cam was not ground on center meaning the the 1 3 5 7 cyl were diff than the others almost all the cams execpt one ( crane ) has this problem its in the way its made cant tell buy pix if its intake or exhaust if you are sure it was not a valve float ? that caused the ding and not always do the valves bend on light contact no need to worry but head gasket thickness may be at play make sure you measure the thickness of the old verses the new if you had a .060 on the motor and you put a .039 in the ding will grow and if you have the time and the ability you can check to confirm its not what you are runing that did this a solid lifter and a set of checker springs deg wheel and some time its not hard if you found it to be not in spec ( .090 intake / .120 exhaust ) advancing or retarding the cam as little as 1* will make a difference and move the valve away
ps: in some very rare cases a bad rod bearing will also cause the ding but if you never had a rattling when starting it up from cold discount this jz

[2MCHPWR]

very interesting stuff. i remember way back when it was mostly stock (2000?), the MPH was falling off and i thought it was valve float. that was my impetus for swapping in the B1 cam and 918 springs and pushrods. that motor has been down the strip many many times (300?) and i didn't nail every shift; i'm sure a few got away from me .

[IROCdan330]

LS1s are interference engines?

hm, learn something new every day...

[1QWIKBIRD]

Originally Posted by johnjzjz

if you had used a degree wheel and checked the # 1 / 6 as a combo you might have found the cam was not ground on center meaning the the 1 3 5 7 cyl were diff than the others almost all the cams execpt one ( crane ) has this problem its in the way its made cant tell buy pix if its intake or exhaust if you are sure it was not a valve float ? that caused the ding and not always do the valves bend on light contact no need to worry but head gasket thickness may be at play make sure you measure the thickness of the old verses the new if you had a .060 on the motor and you put a .039 in the ding will grow and if you have the time and the ability you can check to confirm its not what you are runing that did this a solid lifter and a set of checker springs deg wheel and some time its not hard if you found it to be not in spec ( .090 intake / .120 exhaust ) advancing or retarding the cam as little as 1* will make a difference and move the valve away
ps: in some very rare cases a bad rod bearing will also cause the ding but if you never had a rattling when starting it up from cold discount this jz

all this work was done by others (not that I would have checked the cam out, either), but believe me I'm gonna be laying some clay on the pistons and checking the valve to piston clearance prior to bolting the heads back on for good. Then we'll go from there depending on what I find. As for gasket thickness, I am using exactly what came off the motor when I disassembled it, Fel-Pro PN FEL-9284PT....so we'll see what that yields...

I'll be keeping ya posted. with all the gory details...

Chris

[1QWIKBIRD]

Originally Posted by 2MCHPWR

very interesting stuff. i remember way back when it was mostly stock (2000?), the MPH was falling off and i thought it was valve float. that was my impetus for swapping in the B1 cam and 918 springs and pushrods. that motor has been down the strip many many times (300?) and i didn't nail every shift; i'm sure a few got away from me .

you aren't the only person who missed a few shifts...anyone who claims never to have missed a shift is driving miss daisy or an automatic....

I'll keep ya posted....


Chris

[johnjzjz]

Originally Posted by 1QWIKBIRD

all this work was done by others (not that I would have checked the cam out, either), but believe me I'm gonna be laying some clay on the pistons and checking the valve to piston clearance prior to bolting the heads back on for good. Then we'll go from there depending on what I find. As for gasket thickness, I am using exactly what came off the motor when I disassembled it, Fel-Pro PN FEL-9284PT....so we'll see what that yields...

I'll be keeping ya posted. with all the gory details...

Chris

a little trick you might want to think about -- we teach the guys in the shop when doing a cam piston to valve clearence check to use a checker spring and on overlap you can with all the valve train parts ( zero lash and gaskets does not have to be torqued just snug ) in place push down on the valve int / ext as the piston is coming up if you had a wheel on it between 5* / and 15* aprox depends on cam spec and you want to make contact with the piston and find the spot where the valve and the piston are the closest it will rock like a rocker arm if you are doing it correctly pressing it down and turning the motor slowly back and forth ( if i only had 3 hands it would be easy hahaha ) at its closest spot you can use a dial gague or a simple feeler gague to determin the distance place the feeler gague between the rocker and the top of the valve if you can get at least a .090 on the intake and .120 on the exhaust it will never hit --- you might want to be sure if you are going to do it -- the checker springs are about 10 bucks ( RC car shock spring have worked in a pinch one time hahahah ) jz

[2MCHPWR]

are you going to re-ring the motor? i would while its out. definitely.