Porting/Polishing heads and intakes.

[Doug96CamaroRS]

Does anyone have any experience/suggestions/recommendations/warnings about porting my heads/intakes? A buddy of mine here in Panama City, FL is a moderator on Fullthrottlev6.com and ported his heads and intakes on his cammed '97 3800 camaro and he has some other work done to it as well, and he is offering to do it for free when we go down into the engine to replace my intake (lower intake with aluminum gasket of course :])/valve cover gaskets.

And also, how rare is it for the 3800s to blow gaskets? My buddy says he recommends not doing it, as they rarely ever go, but I get the feeling that if I do the intakes/valve cover gaskets, I should do the heads too (which would require exhaust manifold gaskets as well). Can I get by without doing it?

Thanks,
Doug

[farmington]

can't port the heads without taking them off and if you take them off you MUST use a new head gasket.

[97rs4life]

can't port the heads without taking them off and if you take them off you MUST use a new head gasket.

exactly. You will need new gaskets.

And who is your buddy on ftv6? Depends on how much he takes out of them and if he doesn't hurt the flow of the heads if it is worth it or not

[Doug96CamaroRS]

Scott (skimphish). We were thinking intakes right now... but idk yet.

[97rs4life]

just gasket match the intakes until you can afford a good p&p head job and such from someone like john at 60*inclusive or abbotts then.

[Doug96CamaroRS]

ok thanks. We will probably just do the intakes for now. How much do you think p/p the heads will run me at a quality shop? and where would someone recommend?

[98blackbeauty]

If you take heads to them 200-300. the gain you get from this is so minimal it isn't work the cost of new head gaskets let along the exhaust and intake gaskets. The only time I would consider p&P is if I were doing a major cam swap and larger valves and injectors. Else your thowing money in the trash. Just my .02

[Doug96CamaroRS]

so if I'm just doing the intake gaskets, is it worth porting the intakes, or should I just leave it alone? And are you saying not to do the heads if they aren't leaking?

[98blackbeauty]

Exactly, are your intake gaskets leaking or causing a problem? If not leave them alone too. The only reason to port and polish heads and intake are if you install cam and headers and do valves. This will help your engine breath on intake and expell on exhaust. To take your engine apart when its running fine is a waste of money and time, if that is all your going to do. At best you may gain 1-5 hp. because you might get rid of some restriction from stock. Be aware you could cause restriction by P&Ping it and causing air turbulance. This is something I would not do myself, but take the heads to a professional and proven person.
Now if your engine has problems and you have to tear it down to replace lifters, head gasket, or bearings, then go for it even if your not doing headers or cam, because you have it all apart. I would still take it to a pro though to P & P. Not saying your friend couldn't do it, just the way I feel, some things are best given to the pro to do.

[Doug96CamaroRS]

I know exactly what you are saying, but I think I'm going to go through with it. The valve cover gaskets and intake gaskets are leaking a little bit, so I'm going to do those for sure. I figure that since I'll be that far down into the engine anyways, I'll do the head gaskets. Scott has already done the P&P to his heads, so I trust him to do it. His car runs pretty well (lol). He's probably at about 225 rwhp. I do plan on doing the headers pretty soon here as well. I figure it can't hurt anything and all of the parts for the entire gasket job costs about 185, including the $55 aluminum lower intake gasket. So it's not really killing my wallet. I'll let you know how it turns out! The plan is to do it week after next.