winter is upon, and truck is in the shop for the next 5 months.

Is porting the head a beneficial procedure for a street truck? Have read about few trucks running aftermarket heads.
PDR offers a modded head.

Shoot
onetun

 

ZZ Fabrication cuts the intake side of the head off so you can port it more. I know RayMac Racing Engines do some porting also. It is very price but if you want all out power I guess that is what you have to do.

 

If Loyd can hit 1152 with nitrous, and Tim can hit 889 on #2 both on stock heads (from what I know). I really dont see the need in spending all that cash for head work. I think at some point some things become overkill, but thats just my opinion.

 

I here you there. It is just an option for the guys with deep pockets. I am keeping my head stock but with some springs.

 

the benefit is less restriction and more volume. It the same reason for changing the air filter, intake horn or turbo. because of the volume, you will also get lower egt's. Maybe not a whole lot but, ever little bit helps when trying to run cooler

You're able to move more air with less effort. The more air you have, the more fuel you can add, the more hp you can gain.

The optimal thing would be to add a ZZ intake, port and polish it and have the whole thing ceramic coated. You're probably looking at a 5K head doing that though.

Changing the characteristics of the head though will change the way the engine runs. Not in a bad way but, in a way it will take some work getting the engine tuned right.

It might not be the thing to do for the average truck but, if you're building a competition engine, it all helps in one way or another.

 

Its a waste of time. IMO! Exhaust side mild port work can releive EGT. The rest is flashy with little gain.

The 06 and up heads flow a tad better than the earlier heads did. Still it makes little financial sense to swap em.

 

exhaust side eh, are you interested? also looking for some info on sticks, either from you or lloyd.

 

IMO head porting is completely unnecessary, but beneficial if executed properly.

The relatively high forced-induction pressures of the CTD render most traditional NA VE-increasing mods of questionable benefit (such as tuned-length intake or exhaust runners, primary-pipe collectors, intake tract interior surface texture, volume & obstructions, generous valve overlap, high valve lift, blah blah blah), but much of the engine's operational environment is at near-atmospheric induction conditions... so it spends a significant amount of time pretending to be a NA diesel - that's when things like head-porting can be most beneficial (though perhaps not in a quantitative sense and most certainly probably not cost-effective! )

 

Yeah, and add Wicked (Jorge) to that list. He was using a stock head when he ran 10.74 in his Megacab.

 

Although I have a 12v I noticed a NICE difference, if your truck is going to be sitting for 5 months take the head off and do it yourself.

 

I agree with Muddin, the stock 12 valve has massive amounts of excess material, where the Common Rail head flows pretty well, especially for a stock head.

 

These guys running stock stuff is all good but, I'd put money on the fact they won't be doing it very long. Maybe not so much the head work but, doing some of the upgrades at least ensures a bit more longevity. Ask Jorge how many head gaskets he's been through or turbos. He also has vendors giving him the parts ! I'd go out and push my truck to the very edge too if I knew I didn't have to pay to fix it.

Yes, Garmon can lock down some stock bolts but, I bet he has to replace them every time the head is off. You can only stretch a bolt so far and so many times before it breaks. I bet he has boxes of them from customers that install studs.


I did a few things to my truck that were completely unnecessary but, my engine is now a lot more stout than it was and I can have a lot more confidence that those parts won't be destroyed as easily.

 

AFAIK he was running an aftermarket head for a while prior to the 10.7 run. I think he said he switched back to a stock head and gained a good amount of power over the aftermarket one.

Good point on the stock bolts not being reusable! For someone like myself though who still has the stockers it seems like a better way to go. Save the money/time and just do studs if/when the head has to come off.

 

Wouldn't doing it yourself ruin your head? I mean, unless you have the right equiment (which is very doubtfull) If you tried and changed the way that air and fuel mixes, you could see losses and not gains.

 

you have got that right