Ported heads = re-tune?

[Chiron2005]

After browsing around here and seeing some of the local guys who do porting work, I'm considering diving into the engine. I would assume a re-tune is necessary after this kind of work, but I'm not entirely sure. Anybody have any first-hand experience with porting? Expected gains? Worth it?

[abdullaGT]

If you're going to port the heads, you might as well upgrade the cams while you're in there, since you will have to take out them out to disassemble the heads. I'm pretty sure a dyno tune would be required to have it running safely.

[Chiron2005]

Well, I keep going back and forth between my plans for the car. Part of me says just put 4.10's in and call it a day, the other half wants to do cams, LT's, and heads, and gears. And then I get to thinking that, if I'm going to spend that much money for an extra 50 horse, why not spend a little bit more and go FI?

Decisions, decisions..

[abdullaGT]

Keep in mind, when you do start to dig into the motor, it will become less reliable and most people will not recommend it for daily driving.
Heads and cams will be your be VERY costly alone, and will not give you the results or reliablity/drivability that a supercharger would.
Until I eventually get a supercharger, I decided to do some things that will still be useful with the supercharger, like headers and the x pipe. You'll still be able to keep them when u do go supercharged, and they'll be worth extra power.
I've seen people getting 400 rwhp n/a, but that cost them over $10k in motor work alone to keep it somewhat reliable.

[Chiron2005]

I would love to go FI, but I'm scared to do it on my motor, it's just shy of 90k miles. I've been toying with the idea of getting a motor from a wrecked GT and doing some work to it, possibly a stroker kit from Sean Hyland, cams, etc. That'll give me a forged bottom end so if/when I do supercharge it down the roat, I can push the boost a little higher without too much fear.

[QUARTER MILE MUSTANG]

Ported heads can be worth it,but you wont see substantial gains from it unless its a fairly modified motor. The runners need to be balanced to eachother and the porting needs to be done by someone familar with how its done or performance can geatly suffer. If you decide to have someone port your heads do the research to make sure they are reputable cause once a set of heads are hacked up there is no going back. Cams would be a big plus with ported heads and to get the best performance out of cams and porting a tune would be recommended. This is all just my opinion though.

[BlackOpsStang]

Keep in mind, when you do start to dig into the motor, it will become less reliable and most people will not recommend it for daily driving.
Heads and cams will be your be VERY costly alone, and will not give you the results or reliablity/drivability that a supercharger would.
Until I eventually get a supercharger, hid kits (http://electronicfiend.com/hid-kits/) I decided to do some things that will still be useful with the supercharger, like headers and the x pipe. You'll still be able to keep them when u do go supercharged, and they'll be worth extra power.
I've seen people getting 400 rwhp n/a, but that cost them over $10k in motor work alone to keep it somewhat reliable.

It sucks that that happens once you start switching things =( I like mine as a daily driver, haha.

[Blackout_03]

As long as you have done the routine matanince on ur car. 90k miles should be no prob if you decided to go FI. Just run a safe psi and a good tune!

[hammerhead2]

There is no doubt that going with a blower or turbo will be more reliable and drive around more like a stock car. There are solid gains to be had by doing heads and cams on those cars though. I have two customers making a little over 400rwhp on NA setups in 3V engines. I would say average from my customer base is more in the 375-385 range though. A lot depends on the port, the cams used, and the tune of course. I have seen guys make as little as 350rwhp too. I honestly would not worry too much about the mileage. Our lead ZEX engineer at work just put a 62mm turbo (10psi) on his 05 GT with 150,000 miles on it a couple months ago. It made 500rwhp and runs great. If you are concerned about your engine in paticular then just have a good local shop do a cylinder pressure and leak down test. It won't cost that much and will let you know if your bottom end is up to the task. Either way you go good luck with it!!


P.S. If you decide to do the heads you might check out Found a Deals Ebay store. They were selling the old CNC'd heads from left over SALEEN stock after that company went out of business. They are who I bought my SALEEN wheels from.


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