is it worth it? how hard is it to do? recommendations? tips? would be nice to make a few cheap hp when i put my 351 together. i know some people here have done it themself, just looking for some advice.

 

Well.. it's easy to get some bits and start removing material, but if that results in better airflow or not is another story. I have mixed feelings about this even after doing some of this myself because without a flowbench there is no way to gauge if the work you are doing is beneficial or not. I have also come to the conclusion that the E7 heads are WAY too small for a 351 in any state of prep.. even fully ported by a professional and with larger valves, there just isn't enough material in the castings to make the ports the size they need to be to deliver anywhere near this motors full potential. I think the DIY guy can make some relatively minor improvements without much trouble by simply hogging out the exhaust ports as much as he dares, but even then you may have to ruin a few heads before you learn just how much material you can remove. And the intake side is more complicated because it operates under vacuum not pressure, so it's easier to screw up and hogging it out may not get the results you think it will. Overall I think you'll get better results by using better heads, the 5.8 makes more power everywhere with heads all the way up to the AFR185 level, it's only when you get into the really big heads that the motor starts to loose low end power.

 

i have some used gt40p heads on order, so that will be better than the e7s. ill be able to do some test porting on the old e7s so i dont screw up a head i want to use. so you think i should only port the exhaust ports? and do very minor clean up on the intake ports

 

The P heads are quite a bit better than the E7's as cast.. about 32% better on the intake but only 26% better on the exhaust, so they could definitely use some more help on the outlet side. Have a search on the web for anything you can find about porting, I just found this article I'm sure you'll be interested in... GT40P_Home_Porting - Page: 1 of 6