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Grinding Lubricant

For the porting of the heads? I just used some normal lubricant. Some cheap-o stuff and it worked great. Just make sure its a lubricant and you should be fine
 
I found some stuff at lowes for $2 that was working great. Unfortunately I only got one port done before I blew my dremel. I can't decide whether or not to buy another dremel or to go with some type of air grinder. If anybody's got an opinions let me hear em.
 
I blew out my heavy duty Dremel that I bought 4 years prior. Decided to buy another new Dremel and it worked out fine. Buy it from Walmart, so if it's defective, you can take it back.
 
A full port job is usually very taxing on dremel type equipment. Just matching the intake manifolds is not too bad for it though. So depending on the amount of work you are going to do.
If you get air, you need a good compressor (and earplugs) as the air die grinder moves a lot of air and you need high pressure to maintain good cutting. My compressor is barely enough.
 
Well I decided I'm probably going to go with another dremel. My compressor barely holds up to the task of my impact wrench and air hammer being used for a short time so I doubt it will hold up to prolonged use with the die grinder.
 
Well I went out and bought another dremel. I'm working slowly and when the dremel heats up I'm letting it cool down for a while. I'm in no rush to get this done so it's all good. I'll post up some pics when I finish the first head.
 
i did half of my 2.5 heads so far, with a dremel. it's kinda hard to get into places unless you have the flexible attatchment piece, so i went with my buddy's air grinder and yeah its loud and annoying and the compressor doesnt do the greatest job keeping up but it tears through the aluminum so fast, gotta be careful though not to mess up with all that power!
 
I use a little solvent from my parts washer. I just dip the bit in a cup every so often. The water sounds like a good idea, but I do not have a big sink to work in.

I use an air die grinder. I was using a little 15gal Craftman air compressor, it ran constantly and would be completely out of air in 20 minutes or less. Finally broke down and hooked up my new compressor. No problems now, except my hands get cold.
 
First Head Ported....Includes Pictures

First Head Ported....Includes Pictures

Heads010.jpg

They look like they are much rougher than they actually are. They feel extremely smooth.
Heads008.jpg

Heads007.jpg

Here's just a pictures of what the pistons looked like when I pulled off the heads....
Heads004.jpg

And what they are now....A little cleaner
Heads003.jpg
 
Looking good. Makes sure when you cleaned the pistons you didn't leave any grime down on the top compression ring on the edges of the pistons. Blow it out with solvent and compressed air if you haven't already. Then use a little bit of light motor oil and put a little bit on edges of the piston, use a rag with some oil and wipe the cylinder wall a little bit and turn the engine through by hand. Any trapped particles will stick to the cyl walls with the oil that you can wipe up with the oiled rag, and when you are done it will be clean and rust proofed as well as have a residual oil film in the crosshatching. If you are changing your rod bearings to Clevite77, AND I recommend that you do so, then just pull each piston out and clean them individually, inspect your rings, re-oil them, put in new rod bolts, bearings, and reassemble one by one. This is the best way to insure you have a perfectly clean and durable engine.
Also if the ring edges have any discoloration or pits, you will see it and for another $100 you can slap new factory rings in it. No honing should be done and the rings will seat in fine.
 
I do plan on changing the rod bearings to the Clevite bearings. I'll pull each piston when I do the rod bearings and I'll check everything you said. Right now I'm just working on the other head because of $$$ but soon I'll be doing the rod bearings. I'll keep this thread updated as I make progress.
 
Alright I've got a question. I pulled the first pistion and cleaned it and I saw that there was carbon build up on the side of the piston between the rings. The rings were in good shape and had no discoloration or marks in them. Is this kind of buildup on the side of the pistons normal?
 
Where at? You aren't talking about the black coating on the skirt of the pistons are you? That is a molybdenum coating to reduce skirt/cylinder wear while keeping a really tight piston-to-bore clearance.

If you mean that around the rim of the piston in and around the rings had preferential carbon buildup....it shouldn't be much of an issue. If it was on the side of the piston crown where gravity could pull it down as in oil pulled into the cylinder fell there and burned...no biggie.
YOu should of course change the valve seals if this is the case just to be safe.
 
It was on top of the piston on the sides right around the rings. It wasn't that much buildup at all and so far the rest of the pistons were exactly the same.
 
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