Head Work

[OzzieinXS]

Just about to remove the head and cylinders due to an oil leak from the cylinder base gasket, and I am wondering if anyone could recommend any perofmance mods I could make to the head ie: port and polish etc etc Just to help the "Ol Girl" breath and go a little better.(1978 E)

78E

"A little bit of pain, never hurt anyone"!

[MAXIMAN]

A light port job wouldn't hurt. If you can smooth the lip between the rubber intake boots and the intake flange and do same with the exhaust.

But unless you add cams and more piston (bore and compression) a radical port port might do more harm than help.

Another trick is swap heads. The head off the 80-82 models have larger valves. Combine that with your 78E cams and you should see a nice boost.

[79XS11F]

I am currently putting a Wiseco 1179 kit into my backup engine and i did do some head work. i polished the combustion chambers. and ported out the exhaust side only to match the exhaust gaskets. The work took about 12 hours total to complete.
I just posted some before and after pics at the like below.

http://www.frappr.com/?a=myfrappr&id=1618631

I think the work is work it but as pointed out there is a limit to what you can expect with out "hop up" cams and a flow bench. From what I found on the Internet about porting even the simple stuff like i have done can help the engine breath by about 15% better.
Rob