Port/Polish brand new head

[Gizmoman]

Hey all,
I am in slo-mo rebuild of my 1.9 AAZ and the IP and Injectors are off to Giles.
In emails back and forth with him, he mentioned that I may want to smooth out the intake and exhaust ports on the head to improve flow.
He said that once he is done with the IP, I should be able to hit 100-120 HP fairly easily with 15 lbs of boost but suggested the P&P.

This is a brand new Klobenschmidt head (still in the box). I know I'd defiantly void any warranty if I start removing aluminum. Giles said I could do it without disassembling it by rotating the cam and opening up the valves. Obviously the other option would be to disassemble it.

FWIW, I already have a 2.5" down-pipe and glass pack so there's no restrictions there to speak of.

Any thoughts on the P&P?

  

[Blocksmith]

From what I understand the biggest gain to be had from porting the head is the removal of a restricting band of material just above the exhaust valve seat and smoothing out the turn for the exhaust gasses. To get to it all, you will absolutely have to take the valves out. It sounds like what Giles was talking about was more of a gasket match operation, which, while still beneficial, isn't a really a full port job, imho, and certainly not as beneficial as getting those bands removed.
So, what are you after? All-out power, or more after rock-solid reliability? If the latter, then leave the head alone, as you can definitely still make low 100s without porting, especially with an AAZ (I mean, you'll have a GILES PUMP AFTER ALL  ), while keeping the warranty. Only downside to not porting, at those power levels, would be higher EGTs, depending on which turbo you're going to use.
Just my .02

[Gizmoman]

Excellent advice (really didn't want to take apart a new head) - thanks very much.
The ports match the gaskets pretty close already.
I am seriously targeting lower EGT's for sure, but I'm hoping to take care of that with a WAIC (or drip irrigation and alky blend )

How much would a good porting do to lower EGTs - 10's or 100's F?

Thanks again.

[theman53]

Any issues with the head you have should be covered in the warranty. What wouldn't would be if you cut through to a coolant passage and tried sending it back.

The main thing with porting is velocity. I have been researching and have found bigger isn't better, over and over again. It is all about velocity. If you can get the air to rush in faster, when the piston comes up, it will still be rushing in trying to fill the cylinder. Sanding the turns and bowl area of the port is where it is at. Matching to the gasket on the port opening is as big as you want to go. If you take the valves out you can get to the guide and bowl to take some off there. The intake side of our heads flows worse than the exhaust as cast, so much more gains are to be had there.

[hillfolk'r]

whaty the second dude said..gasket matching can be done without removing the valves,but more power is to be had if you pull em out,but thats alotta work...and ya said the gaskets are close enough..thats it close enough.go for perfect....at least its more than the next guy...and try some dykem or paint or something to put the manifolds on temporarily and see if theres edges hanging in and whatnot...and manifolds can fit sloppy even with all the bolts in...one way to fix that is to shift it to a known position and check your ports matching.....or you can also get it lined up where you want and drill a few small holes in a non critical area and you can use a drill bit to get a perfect alignment on final assembly

[hillfolk'r]

 asfar as water injection...if you arent running an ic,you can blow it right into the turbo inlet..i used to use an old vw washer bottle and a  old carb jet.....
but yea now down the road im gona run an ic so its better to inject after the ic....
forget the 4-500 dollar kits,just buy the pump they offer..
i i got a snow performance pump im itching to try.
and its not like you are gonna flood it out with water if u engage it at higher revs...its actually funny cause i put" the fire" out at the drags once...
my system was manual with a button on the shifter,and id only engage at my leisure......be careful and either shift fast,or let off it inbetween shifts because it likes to sort of cause a minor runaway when its activated.i used to" pulse" mine and it got me an extra mile to a gas station when i was almost out of fuel too.
reminiscing about my flame out: waterfest 07 i think it was...i was pulsing it on the line holding 2500rpm...when it went green i floored it and activated the water...and it bogged bad and almost quit.i got confused and said duh let off the water dummy.it picked back up and when i hit 2nd i activated it again...i got thru it ok,but i ran a whopping [email protected]
that 79 was soo close to 100 in the 1/4 i could taste the soot!
im hoping with the quaife,an ic,and possibly a giles pump ill get that extra  .78mph and solid hi 13s..oh it ws like 95 degrees that day

[RabbitJockey]

Yea when I did gasket matching I just pulled the gasket slip down wards as if gravity were pull it,  that way if I'd ever have the manifolds off with the engine in alignment would be basically automatic

[Gizmoman]

Excellent points from everyone.

I'll have to do some searching here for the best way to disassemble this beautiful head. I'm after low EGT's and this could help in that area from what has been suggested. Can anyone give me some numbers on how much lower I might expect?

I like the idea that smooth is the goal rather than bigger. Will I need to replace valve stem seals or will they be reusable?

If I do the water/alcohol injection, it would be without an IC - so one tiny mister in front of the turbo and another tiny one in the manifold. Each would have their own solenoid and trigger based on boost levels. The main concept is lower EGT's, not power so the mix will be around 70/30 water/alcohol. The pump would be a Devil's Own 200 PSI unit. If/when I do it I'll post pics diagrams and my parts list.

Again, thanks for the feedback and for not flaming me for suggesting H20 injection. I still may end up goin' the IC route as the results are well proven. I'd just rather not mess with the radiator and piping/plumbing, the "box" (and adding lag as well).

Here's a shot of the Volume Valve I am designing. I have a pressure pot that extends fully at 15 PSI (which is where I set my BC at). The spool slides to allow the water volume to increase based on boost pressure. I need to do some testing to get exact numbers on pot rod travel at various pressures, but anyhoo, you get the idea. (EDIT) the port where the spring is will be plugged - possibly adjustable so I can change spring rate if needed.

[hillfolk'r]

like trev said...thats easy too...
if u got one in front of the turbo,u can use your factory washer bottle,no need for an expensive pump....
id suggest getting a book called" turbocharging" by hugh mcinnes,its avalable at summitracing.com
they have many different diagrams of water injection setups...
shoot if you want and have a metal can,you could use the turbo boost to equalize the pressure in the tank with the manifold pressure and still use a vw washer pump if you wanna pump it in the manifold...
i figure the inlet to the turbo gives awesome atmizazzzzation  tho
and blue washer fluid works great too..you could add more meth to it cause i think blue stuff is around 25-30% meth...they say go 50-50%

[Gizmoman]

Thanks for the steer to the turbo book - I'll check it out. Hopefully there's a good section on water Injection cause that's all I'm interested in. My turbo is a K14 which I am rebuilding as well. I understand it's a good turbo for my application and am sticking with it. I thought about going the VNT route but I have enough custom stuff going into this without adding the control issues.

The reason for the 200 psi pump (about 180 bucks) is to insure I atomize the mix extremely well. The smaller the particles, the more efficient it is at cooling the air. I know the turbo will defiantly bust it up as well but I'd rather do it using high pressure. Besides, I am also putting a nozzle after the turbo for extreme cooling if needed. That one will need to seriously atomize.

I'm after lower EGT's and will rely on the Giles pump for HP gains. That's the only reason I am considering working over the ports - to lower EGT and let the Giles pump perform it's magic by improving flow with the head porting. The water mix is for cooling only - not power - I'll add diesel if I want more power.

BTW, will I need new valve guide seals when I go to reassemble the head after porting?

[Syncroincity]

If you use water/meth, you'll see a small power increase anyway, the engine will use the meth as a fuel. Winter mix washer fluid is usually 50-50%.

I'm looking at the same setup; tiny injector at the impeller, larger one in the intake mani. I got a Snow diesel system used on Ebay with the progerssive injection computer that monitors EGT and boost and adjusts flow accordingly. Nothing installed yet, I'm still breaking the motor in.

I did a mild P&P on my head, once you have the valves out, it's very apparent where you need to remove material. You should be able to re-use the seals, just don't take them off the guides, slide the valves out without disturbing the seals.  I used a drill press and a cut-out deep socket to compress the springs, a magnetized screwdriver works great to grab the valve keepers.

This is what my valve areas looked like after the p&p;

[Gizmoman]

Fantastic - just the info I was looking for.
Congratulations on the Snow deal off eBay - great find!

I'm designing a valve that will regulate the flow of mix based on boost. The design looks fine - if I can pull off the build it should work well. There will also be a tiny one-way flow control to the pot that will only allow it to extend slowly (increasing flow). This will keep it from opening too quickly if I slam, the pedal down.

In concept it all sounds right but I'm not sure what the nozzle reaction will be to less than full flow. I figure I should mock it up using a transparent tube so I can see what it does. I'll use my shop vac on the blow side to simulate air flow.

Thank you again for the spot-on answers.

[Syncroincity]

Yeah, maintaining atomization is crucial, particularly pre-turbo, you don't want it dribbling. I can't imagine your setup would be any different than the computer-controlled one, where the pump cycle is reduced to cut flow.

[Gizmoman]

Agreed, no dribble allowed. In theory, the pump will maintain the pre-set 200 psi but only the flow will be reduced via the valve. The testing shoild help determine the minimum amout of flow I can have ans still maintain atomization.

[Gizmoman]

Hey all,
Thought I'd post some pics of my slight porting job.
This was a brand new head but I am upgrading to a Giles pump and want to  let it breathe a bit.

The porting went pretty well being that I've never done it before. I used a carbide burr which I learned to keep wet with WD-40 to keep it from loading up with aluminum.

I finished em off with a kit of sanding mandrels from Harbor fright.

Most of the attention went to the exhaust ports and I pretty much matched them just sly of the manifold. As I have read on here, once you start feeling around with your digits, the areas that need work become obvious.

I also rebuilt the K14 turbo using a kit from Diselecious. It was tough finding a diagram that showed where all the bits went but I think I have it now. I will send it off to get balanced when It's done I didn't mark it before dis-assembly).

HELP, I popped the head off one of the four fancy screws that holds the aluminum plate on the intake side of the turbo. They are m5, 0.8. If anyone has a spare, possibly from a wasted turbo I'd be happy to take it off your hands (see posted picture).

I couldn't figure out how to remove the valve seals so I will need to replace them. I still can't figure out how to get them off the stems but when I get the new ones and know what they look like, I'll possibly figure it out then.

Again, thanks for all the help.