porting intake and heads

[jordan360]

Hi i am new to this kind of stuff, but have been researching on how to port intakes and heads. I don't want to spend any money on it, and i like doing things my self, so i think i will give it a try. I just want to know how difficult a job it is, and about how much power it can add to a 360. Thanks for the input.

[Madman Stephan]

Well, you're going to have to send SOME money to get it done. If you don't have a 4 bl carb or a set of headers, you won't see much in the way of improvements. Then you'll need a die grinder, a porting kit and a template (if you wanna do a good job). It's not that hard, but it is time consumming and VERY dirty. Power gains can be as much as 50 hp on a well-built 360, but, if you just have a stock engine with an upgraded carb and headers, it may be as little as 15 hp.

[DartGT66]

There is no template kit available for regular LA heads. Steve Dulcich once wrote an article for mopar muscle about porting 360 heads. January 2000 issue is the intake side, and february 2000 issue about the exhaust. Those are teh best articles I have seen about porting 360 LA heads, and I highly suggest you read that before starting the job. You don't have to do it the same way, but there is a lot of important information, and flow charts of how much a certain mod helps.

[TK]

It is best to have them ported, I have ruined more sets of 318 heads...................Just to see how far I could get them, LOL

I swear they have/had templates for standard LA heads...........

[DartGT66]

There are no templates, expect for the late "308" "high swirl" castings, at least not from direct connection or mopar performance. Usually, unless you are going to go with very high valvelifts or completely redesigning & enlargening the port, the most benefit available can be had with very little work. A good valvejob with deep 70-75 degree bottom cut blended deep in to the bowl, port match and some streamlining of the guide, pushrod pinch etc will give you s good increase in flow with very little work. The bowl diameter about 85% of the valve diameter works usually pretty well.