allitle fun with the shortys.

[IndyBlk5.0]

One of my headers cracked and i had to take one of them off, was easy becuase i have the heads off and everything. Anyways, i took the one off, and looked at where the pipes go into the head. Well, i noticed there was a significant ridge on right where the headers would bolt into the head. Well, i got the ole dremel out and spent two hours custom "porting" my headers. I only did where there was the ridge inside, you can put your finger into the pipe and it is smooth now, no ridge. No, i didnt grind anything that would effect sealing. Im not sure if this was worth the time, but im bored waiting on my heads to get ported and valve job. should free up 2-3 hp

 

[stangbear427]

The question is, was the ridge you ground off making the hole in the header primaries smaller than the exhaust port on the heads? Guess you'll find out when the heads come back and you can gasket check them...
Sorry, just bustin'. seriously, I have heard of people doing it. Quite a few actually- but not very many were aftermarket Stang headers. Usually we'd do it to the stock manifolds on imports and small domestics with significant improvement noticeable, but not to often any more since the ricer aftermarket has gotten so huge that there are custom headers for almost any small engine now.

 

[Black331Stang]

ive heard a few people on here that do it to there BBKs, especially the LTs

 

[Michael Yount]

I just did it to my FRPP shorties - originally, I was just gonna clean up the exernal welds where the primaries hit the 'collector'; but as long as I had the carbide burr chucked up, I went ahead and did each port. Almost all of them had significant weld bead built up on at least 3 sides. They're all nice a smooth now. Probably won't amount to anything -- kind of like wetting your pants in a dark suit. It'll give you a warm feeling, but nobody will really notice.

 

[IndyBlk5.0]

Well, my heads are in the shop, and im getting the exhaust side fully ported. What i was thinking, with that ridge there on fully ported exhaust side, i would lose power... took me quite awhile becuase i used an assortment of bits to do the job right. I took a conciderable amount of metal out of them, looks good, and it doesnt look like i have a hump all around the inside of my headers. So with ported heads i hope this was worth my time.