has anybody ported heads at home ??polished exhaust ports and comb.chambers looks fairly easy but cleaning up around valve seats dosnt.i would appreciate any helpful hints. i am using s.e.10.25s pistons ialready have s.e.204 cams in . budget wont cover pro porting. also am thinking about using s.e. 211s or 251s. i have been a auto and heavy truck tech for 30 years but building a hi perf harley is giveng me a headach!!!!!

 

There is a science to head porting and flow. If you don't know what you're doing you could end up worse off than the stock heads.

 

I would have to advise you to go to someone who has experiance in head work.If you mess up you'r heads you will have even bigger head aches.I get $450.00 (labor only) for a full street port job.But I pocket port heads for $200.00.Pocket porting is working the area or pocket right under valves.This helps with low lift flow,which would work good with the mild cams you'r thinking of.I like all the other people out there doing head work have thousands of dollars tied up in our eqippment.Not to mention years of experiance.You can try it you'rself but be carefull.Everyone hadto start with their first set of heads.

 

i no not to just enlarge the ports you would loose velocity but i dont get the polished comb. chamber . my 06 dyna heads have a slightly raised intake floor .would it be best to leave it alone and just clean up around the seats?? is polished exaust ports necessary for this small of a engine??

 

the other big no no is messing with the short side radius!

I would just clean up the intake port, just barley removing enough casting to smooth it out.

If you had the capability to slightly enlarge the exhuast port, I would, and as I stated above, dont re-contour the short side, just clean it up.

According to Doug at HQ, polishing to a high shinny finish is totaly pointless!
but if I were to do it, I would only to the exhaust port.

 

thanks for the info .any hints are appreciated.so fari had cyls bored(with torque plates) for 80.00 .pistons were 139.00 from zannottis,gasket 80.00,information priceless, geting my 95 pretty cheap so far. any opinions on the s.e.251 cams?? would they be a lot of differencebetween 251s and my 204s?? everybody here uses 211s .

 

I would use the Head-Quarters TC 500 cams.

 

I did not do the budget route. I let the dealer install the HD 95 kit from HD. Works great.

 

I would stick with the 204s. Dont let anyone tell you a big cam will let you get away with too much compression. Even if it lowers the cranking pressure, when the motor gets reved up, if the cam does what its supposed to do (get more air in), and the pipes and intake work right, it will still have too much compression. Just my 2 cents...

 

Shhhh.....Don't say that to loud. My HQ touring build at 10.1 might hear you.