[gtolarry]

Has anyone done any port work on the Kaufman heads at home. Any tips would help.
Thanks

[steve25]

Which heads Larry, D port, high port?

[gtolarry]

They are the d port heads. I have done a small amount of work on the exhaust ports removing a restriction.

[steve25]

Ok, what cid motor are they going on and how much HP are you lokking to make?

[Cliff R]

I've used quite a few sets on engines built here and always spent a little time cleaning them up. The intake openings are pretty small so some time spent there opening them up and smoothing/blending them to the stock intake gaskets is a good idea.

They need a little work under the valves and into the short turns, mostly just smoothing and blending. No need to remove a lot of material from them. With just a little help in those two areas they flow PLENTY of air and will make great power used on one of these engines.

Even if you don't touch them bolting a set onto a 455 short block and using a decent 230 @ .050" cam will get you 490-505hp without much effort........

[gtolarry]

Thanks to Cliff and Steve for the replies. 500 horse from my 455 is bout where I want to be. Short block is set up with SRP pistons and a good set of rods. All balanced with a good oil pump. Will run the Crower ram air iv cam. I will be running a turbo 400 trans with a 3.23 gear and a 17 “ tire. Thanks for the replies

[77 TRASHCAN]

Larry, Do you know what chamber size your heads have???

[gtolarry]

85 cc heads

[Cliff R]

I've built several 455's with unported KRE 83cc aluminum "D" port heads and the Crower 60919 cam. They made between 494 and 502hp and around 569-575tq with over 500ft lbs torque from 3000rpm's to out past 5000rpms. It's a very good combo, relatively smooth idle and great street manners as well......

[yahooskidoo]

I did some minor home work on my KRE 85cc d ports.

[gtolarry]

Originally Posted by yahooskidoo

I did some minor home work on my KRE 85cc d ports.

Really like the pictures. Thanks

[77 TRASHCAN]

Larry, what torque converter do you plan to run?

[steve25]

Pictures of shinny metal are nice, but there basically flat out useless!
This is because there only a 2 dimensional representation of something that is 3 dimensional and in many places with compound curves coming into play no less!

Unfortunately too many people dive into there heads with a Burr at the end of a high speed grinder with no idea of where the true port choked is at high rates of air mass movement.

The end result of this is loss of lower speed throttle response, a narrower power band then what they could have had, and in terms of top end power they only gain maybe 5 hp when they could have had a boost of 12 to 15.

If pictures are posted with no detail as to what dimensions where at before and after the work done, along with before and after flow test, then once again they are just pictures of now shinny metal!

[Cliff R]

Kind of related but I was involved with the testing of the KRE heads when they first came out. I built one of if not the first engine that used them and also offered the engine in my car at that time to KRE to test them back to back against a well prepared set of 6X-4 iron heads.

Part of the early testing included topping a 455 with them absolutely UNTOUCHED. That means we didn't even give them a gasket match at the intake or clean up in the bowls, nothing. Keep in mind here that the intake openings are tiny, but very smooth and a straight shot right past the pushrod areas and on down to the valves.

They made the SAME power as a near identical engine we did a few months later where the tiny intake openings were opened up and nicely blended to a stock intake gasket and some clean-up under the valves and short turns. Yes, NO DIFFERENCE anyplace which simply tells me that a LOT of the efforts folks put into grinding away at the intake runners on these heads, gasket matching, etc, in most cases really isn't helping much.

It actually makes sense when you think about it for a second because the real restriction in these heads are in the bowls under the valves. Unless you open them up there, opening up everything before the bowls changes nothing as far as how much air can flow past the bowls, valve guide bosses and valve stems to get into the cylinders......FWIW.

I still think it makes sense to give any cylinder head that you purchase a thorough inspection, clean-up, and remove any casting flash, sharp edges, etc and do this with the thought in mind that I shouldn't be "hogging" them out anyplace and doing so really isn't helping things out anyhow. I'll also add here that EVERY part I use in my engines gets taken apart and/or thoroughly inspected before using it, especially cylinder heads and oil pumps. You just never know if the last guy who worked on them left his wrist watch in there when he took his lunch break on the assembly line!...LOL......Cliff

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by steve25

Pictures of shinny metal are nice, but there basically flat out useless!
This is because there only a 2 dimensional representation of something that is 3 dimensional and in many places with compound curves coming into play no less!

Unfortunately too many people dive into there heads with a Burr at the end of a high speed grinder with no idea of where the true port choked is at high rates of air mass movement.

The end result of this is loss of lower speed throttle response, a narrower power band then what they could have had, and in terms of top end power they only gain maybe 5 hp when they could have had a boost of 12 to 15.

If pictures are posted with no detail as to what dimensions where at before and after the work done, along with before and after flow test, then once again they are just pictures of now shinny metal!

I agree that pictures don't answer dimensional questions and certainly can't portray a superior porting job or prep. But pictures can show a graphic "screw-up" many times. I don't see that in the few pics. Joe Mondello, "RIP" had many little sayings that were generic in nature and helpful, and he ported thousands of heads of every type before opening his school. Couple of quips from Joe. "Straighten up, Port up", "You can't make the exhaust tract too smooth" , "80 grit finish on intake is the stopping point for street heads", "Trust your eyes" . I keep these basic points in mind when working on heads I am not very familiar with, because it's hard to go wrong. Obviously every head design has very specific little details that can be improved and optimized for a specific cam, RPM range and maximum flow. On the KRE head, careful removal of sharp edges under the seat cuts, straightening vertical walls gently, matching port openings paying attention to port roofs is all that's necessary for a general street porting job. Possibly a little detail work in the chamber left by the CNC machining. Stay the heck off the short turns other than to very gently radius. Flattening the floor, or lowering the floor will really hurt the heads. That's what "straighten up, port up" means. Remember if your removing large amounts of material, you are changing the design smart people engineered into the ports. This is especially true of modern aftermarket heads. Good luck.

[Stan Weiss]

David Vizard's PowerTec 10 EP 23 5 Golden porting rules #1 Identifying primary flow restrictions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlEiPfJHy4o

Stan

[Steve C.]

If interested....

Magazine article about the new KRE D-port heads. Plan was to put them on Cliffs car:

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/05...-dyno-results/


Testing the new KRE head at the track with Cliff's car:

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/05...track-results/

.