Blingin BBC heads!

[Ryan B.]

How to turn your Aluminum Heads into a polished showpiece:
Now i'm done with polishing the outside i'm concentrating on porting and smoothing out all the casting flash inside the intake and exhaust ports.
I'll post more pics in a few weeks as my engine goes back together and back into my camaro...

Aluminum heads disassembled and cleaned.

Sanded with 120, 220, 320, 400..

Hours of hand sanding done.

Polished.

The pictures barely do justice how blingin these heads are now. Almost need sunglasses to look at em.

 

[sweetk30]

good job. but you best seal them or it will all be for nothin. moisture will get them.

 

[k20]

 

[Ryan B.]

what do ya mean seal it? the aluminum will oxidize? I'm not gonna clear coat it, if thats what you mean?
I've polished tons of other parts on my camaro and the polished aluminum has looked almost the same for 3 years, barely maintaining it.
I polished the tpi setup on my K5, and under all the mud its still polished up nice, a year later.

 

[sweetk30]

up here in the salt belt that wont last long. just a idea . but i guss you dont need to. good job tho, more time and energy than i have.

 

[highrider_44s]

i would double check on polishing the intake ports. I haven't done a lot of porting but when i tryed it on our race car heads the i did a little reaserch and i found that your not supose to polish it intake runner. It's better left with smoth flowing curves but a rougher surface. This is to add a little turbulance to the air when it travels through. But you can polish the hell out of the exhaust side just my 2cts man those look shiny that takes patience

 

[Ryan B.]

yah? thanks for the tip.. I'll research some more before i get crazy with the intake port.
right now i'm just working on smoothing out the casting flash. All the rough and high areas i'm smoothing them out to match the rest of the port. Should be worth a few HP.
I've read just polishing the exhaust port doesn't really do a whole lot for more flow, but prevents carbon buildup.
This thing went 11.6 @ 118mph in my 3380lb camaro last summer, i'm trying to do as much as i can while its apart to help break 10.99 on the motor without doing much else. (Then the juice.)

 

[4X4HIGH]

Ryan, polishing the intake runners of the head is ok but do not try to polish the intake runners of the manifold. As was said before, you do want some turbulence to help atomize the fuel charge but that can be accomplished in the intake manifold then it will flow much easier through the polished heads. I have a shop near me that does porting and polishing work and Angie went to some schools to learn all the in's and out's of porting and she has a flow bench that she tests her work on and also a Dyno to back things up.

PS. Ryan, you might like to know that Angie is building a 6 second street driven, (rarely i'm sure) 69 camaro powered by a blown injected SBC on alcohol. She is going to be competing in the worlds fastest street car competition when it's done.

 

[Ryan B.]

Yah, i'm not touching the intake manifold other than drilling and tapping it for foggers. the intake and heads have already been gasket matched. The edelbrock heads are gasket matched from the factory..
But theres this huge lip or step on the intake ports from where the gasket match port hasn't been smoothed into the rest of the intake port. everything i've read says that needs to be smooth and not create a disruption of flow there where it enters the port.
so i'm gonna smooth that out to where there is no more step and it flows smooth, then stop. other than that take out the casting flash.
i'm going to try to keep everything i do equal to all ports.

Hey scott, do you know what a good head port and polish job typically goes for over there? i know it can get pricey.. around here a "stage 2" job will be $1000+.

 

[4X4HIGH]

I know it all depends on what you're after but usually anywhere from the basic clean things up for around $500.00 to the bad daddy of all for $2000.00+

 

[BigBurban350]

i would double check on polishing the intake ports. I haven't done a lot of porting but when i tryed it on our race car heads the i did a little reaserch and i found that your not supose to polish it intake runner. It's better left with smoth flowing curves but a rougher surface. This is to add a little turbulance to the air when it travels through. But you can polish the hell out of the exhaust side just my 2cts man those look shiny that takes patience

The rough intake surface is for fuel atomization. The polished exhausts ports are to prevent carbon buildup. A polished CC is to prevent detonation.

Also be sure to get thee smoothest head gasket surface or your head gaskets will fail prematurely from scuffing (if u are running an iron block).

 

[dodgedude99]

good job. but you best seal them or it will all be for nothin. moisture will get them.

he is from Ca., the finish will last forever.
unlike here in illinois, i would have to polish that 2xweek.

i would still Zoops it though.

 

[sled_dog]

I'd definetally port match the intake manifold. Few ponies to be gained there. I've only done it to a stock TBI intake and an Ebrock Performer and both of them were horrible compared to the gasket(the word trapezoid comes to mind).

 

[ntaj*ep]

Damn Ryan! Your a polishin' foo' these days! Looks bad a$$! Who needs to go to a gym, just polish up your junk in the garage!

 

[adamforsythe]

what did you use to polish the heads?

 

[Ryan B.]

what did you use to polish the heads?

Hello,
Sanding is probably 3/4 of the work, going from 120,220,320,400. An air sander only gets the flat parts you can get to, which isn't much. Hand sanding for most of it to get all the nooks and crannys...
Polishing is the last bit after its all preped sanded smooth. I used a block of white rogue polishing compound, and buffing wheels.
3" buffing wheel on a die grinder works for most of it. A pointed felt bit, and a small 1" buffing wheel on a dremol tool works good for the rest.
Oh yah and a lot of time and patience.

Wanna guess how many hours i have into both heads?