How-to DIY Port and Polish

[2point4DSM]

First off, tools make the difference. Having top end and torque is good. With that said, electric is awesome cause it has both. People's opinions may vary. Of course if you could dump $300++ into an air die grinder then I would probably have to reconsider.

Anyway, never port and polish parts on a car if you have to lay on your back to do it. I had a buddy that got a splinter in his eye doing it this way, lol.

Most people would say that port matching is the best bang for the buck.

Keeping the intake side a bit rough and polishing the exhaust side seems to be the ideal way.

[MuddyREX]

Did you do some P&P yourself? If so, what parts did you do and how about some before/after pics?

[2point4DSM]

Sorry no pics. After an hour or more of porting and polishing my hand would never be stable enough to hold a camera, lol.

But yes, I've done quite a few jobs. I've done several heads, intake and exhaust manifolds, turbine housings, throttle bodies, o2 housings, etc. I started doing it over ten years ago. Lately, I dread the idea of doing anymore jobs. Very time consuming and messy, lol.

It's not hard. Just takes a lot of patience and some background knowledge. For example you can't really go crazy on a head cause you can poke open an coolant passage. At that point you can throw the head aways, lol.

[igo4bmx]

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.shtm

[moorefire]

heres a good circle track tech article on porting

http://circletrack.com/techarticles/general/139_0305_intake_flow/

[2point4DSM]

Also, a lot of people go crazy and take a lot of metal out of exhaust parts. Not really a good idea cause the more mass you take out the sooner it will crack. Of course, if you plan on upgrading to that super duper tubular setup in the near future anyway, then go ahead, go crazy... lol.

[S4toSTI]

This is a very cool thread i would really lto see someone who is going to do something like this invite some people over to watch i think pnp is something most car guys are interested in doing but either having the money to buy a second set of heads or other stuff can get expensive. Also those of us without a extra car can not really take vital parts out and send them out for a week. So i think this is something myself and many other would like to learn about. Ok wil so when you doing a "wil teaches pnp to stupid tst kids night?"

[MuddyREX]

Seriously, I would never have the balls to try and tackle something like this without seeing it done first.

[S4toSTI]

Ok list of tst people attending wil's lesson...(lets put some preassure on him)
1. Muddy
2. Barry
2. pete

[sur4die]

i'm in! free (as in beer) modifications are the best!

[2point4DSM]

Barry, we need a garage to do this all in. How big did you say your garage is?

I'll show you guys how to draw lines on your manifolds, and turbine housings, etc and it'll be up to you to stay in the lines. Don't worry though it'll take quite a bit of effort to mess up, lol.

[S4toSTI]

Barry, we need a garage to do this all in. How big did you say your garage is?

I'll show you guys how to draw lines on your manifolds, and turbine housings, etc and it'll be up to you to stay in the lines. Don't worry though it'll take quite a bit of effort to mess up, lol.
I don't have one anymore but i know quite a few. Cough troll ivan matt.

[97TurboDSM]

im in!

[TROLL]

wil and i were going to port my exhaust manifold tonight but then i found out its very loud and i wouldnt be able to do that at night, even in my garage. if anyone has a garage in the area we can use then i'm still down to do it tonight but i need to knwo sooner rather than later so i can pull my manifold off!!
bryan

[TROLL]

anybody? i'll bring the tools and the headers... wil is bring the know-how... we just need a place to do it where we can be loud. need to know soon so i can get started on pulling the headers off...
bryan

[sfd]

id lvoe to learn.

i dont have a garage to do this in (at night) or id offer.

[WhiteXFire]

Man, you guys should drive down here...you can use my apt parking garage and I can learn at the same time!

Btw, I keep wanting to say "Do you like to...do it, yourself?" when I see this thread. Thanks 40 yr. old virgin...

[TROLL]

ok so on sunday i had a marathon port and polish in my garage. thanks to will for coming over for a bit and getting me started... it takes a looooong time to do the wrx exhaust manifold at least, since there are 9 different places that can be done.
i was very slow and careful on the first one and it took forever. as the day went on i got more comfortable and applied a lot more pressure and just went at it.
i dont know if my job would win any awards for looks... i wasnt quite as concerned with that as just getting them opened up and matched decently well for whatever performance gains i could achieve.
anyways, on with the photos...

complete exhaust manifold, with gaskets
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/manifoldcomplete.jpg

comparison of ported manifold versus stock untouched. notice the carbon buildup which indicates the difference in size between the actual opening and the gasket. right off the heads you want to just open these up as much as possible, but of course keep them slightly smaller than the gasket so it can seal properly
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/comparison.jpg

stock crosspipe versus ported one. this pipe has a flex section in it and therefore is 'sleeved'. this sleeve creates an abrupt step which you want to grind to a much smoother transition
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/crosspipebefore.jpg
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/crosspipeafter.jpg

port matching requires matching the outlet of one pipe as closely as possible to the inlet of the pipe that bolts up to it. to do this i took a sheet of posterboard on the larger of the two and cut a template of the exact opening size. i laid it onto the smaller one and basically grinded away until it matched the template. yes i know my template is ghetto but i just used it as a rough guide. also notice that i didnt open up the inlet as much as possible... thats the point here, you only want to open it as much as is needed to match the pipe it is being mated to.
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/portmatchtemplate.jpg
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/collectorportmatch.jpg
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/crosspipeportmatch.jpg

and here are some finished product shots...
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/closeup.jpg
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/collectorgasketmatch.jpg
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/finished.jpg

oh and i almost forgot to mention... arguably the biggest benefit to this mod is the mad tite weight savings yo
http://www.bryantroll.com/other/portnpolish/weightsavings.jpg

[TalonTsi97]

Looks good for first try. Hope it helps you out.

[Intercooled T]

good pictures and comparisons. weight isn't really an issue, but how much did you widen the manifold?

[the mike]

I would use caution on the welded pipes, you are increasing the risk of cracking where the seams are.


But, you can go to town on the cast one!!:lol:

[TROLL]

i measured the manifold with the finished versus untouched one and the diameter was 49.5mm vs. 54mm
forgot to do any other measuring... oh well.
any constructive criticism from guys who have experience with this? the clock was ticking and it had to be back on my car in time for work the next morning so i took enough time to do a job i was happy with but like i said i didnt go to town with polishing to a mirror finish or anything.
bryan

[2point4DSM]

Bryan was kidding about the weight savings, lol.

And we did go over the fact that taking too much material out actually weakens the structure so he was careful about just concentrating mostly on the flange portion of the cast parts and only sharpening the edge of the welded pipe section.

Not to mention the biggest gains really is just from port matching and not trying to increase the overall diameter of the pipes too much, which would be almost impossible anyway unless you wanted to then send the parts out for extrude honing.

Overall, looks good! Congrats.

I hope you had fun and you enjoy the results.

And funny, it didn't turn out to be as loud as I remember so I'm sure we will see a port and polishing party sooner or later at your place, lol.

[TROLL]

and since someone is sure to ask if i can feel a difference...

unfortunately i only installed the new turbo setup about 5 days prior to pulling my car apart to work on the exhaust manifold. so really, i never got that good of a feel for the car with the turbo upgrade and stock manifold. therefore i really cant tell a difference here becuase i dont have a baseline.
but most schools of thought agree that this type of work will result in slightly earlier spoolup and a few horsepower or so. nothing too crazy but slight benefits that require a good amount of time but absolutely no money (assuming you have the proper tools already)
bryan

[screamingdsm]

I spent 4 hours on my head before it went on.

port matched intake exhaust,took out any casting flash,knife edged the dividers,raised the intake chambers,bowl ported it and got a nice route into the intake valves....its was my first time doing and head,and it was simple,and as 2point4 said,it comes down to tools!!!!!

[2point4DSM]

You know I just realized you dumped all those metal shavings on your garage floor to take a picture of it with the lugnut.

And to think we were trying to keep your floor clean of that stuff and actually built a nice porting cabinet, lol....

Btw, metal splinters suck!