anyone know anything about porting heads and if its worth it

 

yeah its worth it, just don't port them while there still on the vehicle (inside joke)

 

porting my stock heads didn't really give much benifit

 

It is easier to mess them up than make an improvement if you do not know what you are doing. Bigger is not better. https://mustangforums.com/forum/5-0-...g.html#1108187
You can buy a grinder from summit for $20 and you will need some deburring tools a set of three is $70.

 

Depends on your goals, and what you start out with.

In older Windsor heads, there was a thermacter boss in the exhaust port. You could gain some power by removing that. Smoothing out casting flash and parting lines improves air flow. Polishing the chambers a little bit helps prevent detonation. Polishing the intake ports can often cost you power. Matching the intake manifold to the heads is usually worth some efficiency, and therefore power - even on a stock engine.

Any more than that and you really need a good template to work from, to ensure that all the ports are the same.

 

To do it right take lots of experiance and a flow bench BUT even a Novice can make improvments. The best thing for the beginner is to clean up the bowl area (the part under the valve and smooth them out and port match the intake ports to the gasket you will be using. Then smooth the casting marks off the port wall and then STOP. If you get to wild you can hurt flow. Normally cleaning up these areas will result in some good power. How much power just depends on the head itself. Real head porting is becoming a lost art because there are so many great heads you can buy off the shelf. About the only porting work I get these days is those guys who have to use a factory casting head in class racing. I did a set of 781 Oval Port Big Block Chevy heads a while back. By the time I got the 2.25/1.88 valves installed, new seats, guides, seals and a killer port job on them the guy had 2000+ dollars in them.