Stock 302 Heads
FTE Legend
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 31,930
Likes: 1,499
From: Ottawa, Ontario
What heads you got?
The exhaust side is where most of the work needs to happen, smooth, blend, and open the whole port out to the gasket surface, but don't cut the floor down just clean it up. Polishing the intake side will actually hurt airflow, and it's already big enough for a stock motor, so just clean up any obvious flaws or casting flange. Instead port match the intake ports to the head ports, these are often smaller and misaligned on the stock intakes, fixing this alone is often good for 10 ft lbs and 10hp. Also remove an sharp edges from the combustion chamber, this will decrease detonation sensitivity.
The exhaust side is where most of the work needs to happen, smooth, blend, and open the whole port out to the gasket surface, but don't cut the floor down just clean it up. Polishing the intake side will actually hurt airflow, and it's already big enough for a stock motor, so just clean up any obvious flaws or casting flange. Instead port match the intake ports to the head ports, these are often smaller and misaligned on the stock intakes, fixing this alone is often good for 10 ft lbs and 10hp. Also remove an sharp edges from the combustion chamber, this will decrease detonation sensitivity.
Posting Guru
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,649
Likes: 2
I reccommend doing a little research on head porting before starting. There is nothing like seeing a few already properly ported heads and getting advice on tools and techniques before grinding on a set of heads. It's not really hard to do, but the best results come from the most knowledgeable porters. Better results will be gained from buying a good set of aftermarket heads than self-porting your own stock heads, budget allowing. Starting with good cores is important too. If you can turn your heads upside down and get the casting codes and post them here- someone will give you advise on whether those heads are worth using. The code should look something like this E7TE- or D0OE,or C9AE, ect..... you get the idea- a letter, a #, and 2 more letters.
