Re: head gasket, any mods while I am in there?

["Graydon D. Stuckey" <graydon@apollo.kettering.edu>]

On Sat, 6 Jun 1998, James Fawcett wrote:

> there.  It is an 86 5kTQ.  I thought about porting and polishing the head
> and the intake manifold.  Anyone have any experience?  What about bigger

Well, I am replacing my 5KCSTQ's head gasket too.  I figure that 200,000
miles on the original head gasket with the last 40,000 at 15+psi boost
isn't too bad. :-) I decided against using my original head because
although the head was within spec, it had cracks between the valves in 3
of the 5 cylinders.  They were hairline, but tyhey were there.  So I got
the head off my 5000s parts car and it was in perfect shape.  I figured
I'd do only some minor "cleaning up" of the ports to smooth the airflow
ever so slightly, but I found out that the exh ports were _much_ smaller
than the gasket so I gasket matched the exh ports.  I also cleaned off all
the flash and casting roughness.  I don't have any flow bench numbers, but
my "engineering" sense tells me that this head will flow much better now. 
(or rather, it better flow better after all that work!) I am using stock
sized valves as my budget is already being pushed to the limit. 

> costly, how much $ etc???   Any help would be great.  I think I am gonna

If you already have a hand grinder and air compressor, then it doesn't 
cost much more than some time to polish the ports.  I use the sandpaper 
rolls like Eastwood advertises and a carbide burr for the rough stuff.   
It makes quite a mess though.

Later,
Graydon D. Stuckey

"There's alot more to Jazz than just wrong notes"