The heads are off the motor right now, so I guess I’ll take a shot at using the head as a port template and trim the valley pan window. If I ruin the pan, then I’ll just go back to plan A and trim the windows off, mate it to a paper gasket with silicone, and wait for the leak. I just hope I don’t scar up the nice new ports too badly.
I wish I had the budget for a valley plate setup, but I’m at the end of an expensive winter and the dollars are all gone.
Thanks All!
Just take your time and take full swipes with light pressure on the carbide bit and you will be fine.
You can mock up the heads on the block with the head gaskets in place and trace the bolt holes on the valley pan to the heads with a scribe if you want to make sure the geometry is dead nuts on. The need to mock up like that is when you don’t know how much metal was removed off the deck or how much metal was removed of the heads. Depending on the head gasket used, the metal that was removed off the deck or heads can be made up with head gasket thickness.
I just center the bolt holes on the valley pan to the head and bolt the valley pan down with short bolts with washers then start cutting. If your not steady with your hands or have doubts than I would have someone who does this type of work all the time do the cutting
