Topic: Port and polish

[Rusted Honda 317]

Anyone do a port and polish with a dremel on a 74' 550? (Intake and exhaust)I've read a lot of threads from hear and there, does it makes that much of a difference? Either way I'm doing it this winter just to say "yeah ported And polished" it just sounds cool. Just wanting some pointers that's all.....

[mick7504]

It will be cool done properly.

[dave500]

don't port,dont polish,just knock all the rough edges and cast marks clean and match any intake to head mis alignment like this.

don't be tempted to just make all the holes bigger,youll lose performance and particually driveability and off the line punch,then if you want to impress people with words tell them its been "blue printed"if you really want to impress them learn how to ride fast on a 40 year old bike.

[Bailgang]

+1 to what Dave said. The shape of the port is very important to how the ports flow so reshaping/enlarging it should be left to a pro. I've seen more than a few cyl heads that were ported by someone who should've stuck to their day job and essentially ruined the cyl head. When I messed with my 550's cyl head I limited the "porting" to deburing any casting flash and gently blending in sharp edges. I was a noticeable improvement, not much but still an improvement on how it ran.

[Rusted Honda 317]

Saying it "sounded cool" was my attempt at humor. I should have said add sarcastic voice here. But I appreciate the input. And I asked a friend of mine who has many years my senior on knowledge and he said the same thing as dave500, just knock off the casting marks and so forth. His words "Don't try to port yourself!" "Just clean it up"!!

[calj737]

You could always opt for Mike Rieck Stage 3 head job. Nothing sounds cooler than that! (no sarcasm voice here).

[faux fiddy]

+1 to what Dave said. The shape of the port is very important to how the ports flow so reshaping/enlarging it should be left to a pro. I've seen more than a few cyl heads that were ported by someone who should've stuck to their day job and essentially ruined the cyl head. When I messed with my 550's cyl head I limited the "porting" to deburing any casting flash and gently blending in sharp edges. I was a noticeable improvement, not much but still an improvement on how it ran.

+1.  Rick Lance who specialized in restoration and tuning of gp replica bikes talked for hours on the subject of porting when we visited him.

He said if someone tells you they know how to port a head, you first go and look under the tree in their back yard and there should be a pile of heads up to your chest  they scrapped out learning what works.

[Rusted Honda 317]

I learn something everyday. Thanks for the info.