[tempest1964]

So I've been watching their web site. They stopped doing iron heads last summer-to get caught up. Today I checked to see if they were caught up and doing iron heads again and it says 'Will no longer be doing iron heads'. Bummer.

[Formulajones]

There are other good porters that do iron heads. But with all the CNC ported aluminum versions from various suppliers ready to go it sure makes the decision a lot easier.

[tom s]

It will add years to Daves life!Tom

[tempest1964]

I did not realize it was a health issue for Dave. I was merely looking at it from my point of view. Of the build I have planned in my head for my 421 SD tribute engine. Now that I realize it was a health issue for Dave, I kinda feel like a douche.

[tom s]

I dont KNOW that Dave thought it as a health issue!I know others that have been doing iron grinding have.Tom

[tempest1964]

Good to know. Thanks Tom

[Dragncar]

Daves iron heads were CNC, not much hand grinding at all. I had a really nice set of 48s that went 272 cfm. You could see the CNC cutter marks everywhere.

[tempest1964]

Dragncar, I thought about that too. But then I thought about the CNC program to run it. And a prototype. So, I figured Dave had to make a prototype by hand, put it on a CMM to get enough data points to generate a good CNC program for his multi-axis mills. Write a good program from his data and finally he was able to run parts. Probably has a program for each head variant he does. All the Pontiac heads he does as well as Edelbrock and any other. After his initial hand ported prototype, he really shouldn’t be exposed to metal particles and if he has a good wet downflow de-burr bench he should be protected too. At least I would hope so. There is also the possibility that Dave is at the point where he wants to downsize. Mere speculation on my part as I don’t know him and have only spoke to him once on the phone. I will say he seemed like a nice guy on the phone.

[b-man]

The weight of the heads themselves might be part of the decision to forgo anymore work on iron heads. 62 pound iron heads compared to 35 pound aluminum heads makes a big difference when shuffling them around the shop and workbench.

Back around the year 2000 I received likely one of his last sets of hand ported iron 6X heads, I’m sure moving onto CNC porting helped greatly in extending his ability to continue in the porting business.

[Tom Vaught]

Dave has had some health issues, from what he told me, but not serious ones, and then he had the mud slide which screwed up his shop for a long period of time.

As I have posted in the past, I was willing to wait to get a pair of his CNCed heads.

Tom V.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by b-man

The weight of the heads themselves might be part of the decision to forgo anymore work on iron heads. 62 pound iron heads compared to 35 pound aluminum heads makes a big difference when shuffling them around the shop and workbench.

Back around the year 2000 I received likely one of his last sets of hand ported iron 6X heads, I’m sure moving onto CNC porting helped greatly in extending his ability to continue in the porting business.

A multitude of factors may have played a part in his decision to end the porting of iron heads. I can say from experience that it is a very time consuming, hard on the body , hard on equipment , way to end up with out of the box flow capacity of the most pedestrian aluminum heads. Before CNC porting, Joe Mondello, one of the most respected names in the business at his peak had 40-45 people hand porting iron cylinder heads in three locations up and down the CA coast, 8-10 hours a day, 6 days a week. That's a heck of a lot of iron filings and dust. CNC takes much of the time and hand work out of it, but is still hard on tooling and abrasives. In addition, for Dave, finding good cores may be a problem now. They erode from age and use on the inside in the water jackets as well as core shift. That's why I continue to whine for an aftermarket iron replacement head. If we had one, a simple CNC program could produce a 300 CFM head with consistent cross sections, easy for Dave and others to work with. Looks aluminum is all we will have for the foreseeable future.

[61-63]

If you just must have iron heads nicely ported Jim Robertson in Abilene Texas does nice work. He's not cheap and not fast but does nice work.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=816668

[tom s]

Pretty sure Mendoza in Huntington Beach still hand ports iron.Tom

[Tom Vaught]

Have to agree Mike G that Now would be a good time for a true 300 cfm Iron Pontiac Head to be on the market. Two compression ratios MAYBE but for sure one ratio that most would think would be appropriate for today's Iron Head market.

Tom V.

[Cardo]

Wow. Hadn't heard about this. Glad i got mine done when i did. Got mine back in late 2019...must have been towards the end of the run. Couldn't be happier with them, that's for sure!

[lust4speed]

Originally Posted by tom s

Pretty sure Mendoza in Huntington Beach still hand ports iron. Tom

And a character -- not to mention that you and I almost youngsters compared to him. His shop appeared cluttered and dirty, but then we noticed the clutter was Brodix and other very high end specialty heads waiting for his touch.

Iron heads are a pain with the weight and the additional cleanup of 50 years of filth before porting. Then you have core shift from back then and corrosion that might have your CNC program cutting through to enlarged coolant passages. I'd say that if Dave can keep his machines busy with new aluminum heads, I don't blame him one bit from moving away from iron. Not to mention that aluminum can be worked much quicker than iron and Dave can probably turn out many more aluminum heads in a day.

Just put a set of Dave's round port 325 heads on a club member's engine. As always they look like fine art.

[Dragncar]

Last I heard the set of 272 cfm 48s I sold the owner was looking to move them. Solid roller heads and very nice.

[1968GTO421]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

A multitude of factors may have played a part in his decision to end the porting of iron heads. I can say from experience that it is a very time consuming, hard on the body , hard on equipment , way to end up with out of the box flow capacity of the most pedestrian aluminum heads. Before CNC porting, Joe Mondello, one of the most respected names in the business at his peak had 40-45 people hand porting iron cylinder heads in three locations up and down the CA coast, 8-10 hours a day, 6 days a week. That's a heck of a lot of iron filings and dust. CNC takes much of the time and hand work out of it, but is still hard on tooling and abrasives. In addition, for Dave, finding good cores may be a problem now. They erode from age and use on the inside in the water jackets as well as core shift. That's why I continue to whine for an aftermarket iron replacement head. If we had one, a simple CNC program could produce a 300 CFM head with consistent cross sections, easy for Dave and others to work with. Looks aluminum is all we will have for the foreseeable future.

Remember this thread?

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=819494

Wonder what the h happened to these proposed iron heads that dried up with the posts by GoatZillaRacing?

[Formulajones]

Your question just got answered. I eluded to it in my last post and then someone confirmed it.

[Will]

Is he still doing intakes? I've always wanted one of his stage 3 intakes and I just acquired a nice '72 unit. If he's still doing them I better get it off to him before he decides to stop doing them too.