I know the obvious of port thru or to thin, but I am just going to smooth out the rough casting and any benefits to this? any advice, I have Mopar Performance Stage 5 cast iron heads.

hi good ?
this thread may help a little

My personal experience was to try and think like a molecule of fuel or air.
Anything that appeared to be an obstruction was removed or smoothed.
Didn't get too carried away with stock removal or opening things up.
Little contouring around the guide and I was happy.
Apparently , so was the motor.
The last one was 80 " Evo motor with a small Andrews cam and swapped to a Mikuni carb.
80 h.p. at the rear wheel.......up from 54.
Before that was Ford 429 C.J. heads , where the intakes needed more restriction from where I was sitting , but the exhausts needed all the help I could give them.
Unless you need maximum flow ( a job I tend to leave to the professionals ) , just smooth things out and contour the guide in the port and you will be fine IMO.

First question is: What are your goals? This NEEDS to be answered honestly by you to determine what if anything needs to be done to your heads. J.Rob

Alumunum cuts VERY quickly w/carbide cutters so you better know how to controll it or you can jack em up quick. I`m no expert but I ported my rpm heads and removed MOST of the push rod pinch and measured remaining thickness leaving about .080 wall thickness. I slightly raised the roofs and gently blended the short turn radious then opened up the bowls while ALWAYS measuring each and every change I made then made every port the same as best that I could. LOTS of work but next time it`s cnc ported for me w/a follow up by hand if needed. What you`re talking about is like a stage 1 clean up and is worth it in my opinion as long as you keep the intake fairly rough and tha exhaust smooth. My bad, I see they`re cast iron....everything`s the same except for the fact that alum`s easier and faster.

I did some 516 heads from scratch. It was alot of work. I approached it in the same way you are going to do. I have to say it was "fun" but.........
Wear safety glasses, Metal shavings and dust will really be flying all around. You will avoid an emergency room visit. DAMHIK
When I was "done" I had the heads rebuilt. My machinist flowed 'em. He said he could get more.
He found 25% more flow. That's alot.
So here's my take. I know much more about how this really works which is a good thing. I also know that the work I did was much less than pro's can do. I'd leave it in the pro's hands from now on.

My goal is to get as much power as my skill will allow, (Money is very much a concern, cant afford a pro) I just want to smooth the rough casting, I learned that I should also wear a mask, Dust was flying everywhere. I thank you all for your input!

First off, get the MP BB porting templates.
Second, if you can do them outdoors, do so, makes cleanup easier. Next, if you must do them indoors, try taping a shop vac hose on or near the other end of the port and have it running, to catch the filings as you grind.
There are supposedly gains to be made in grinding down the short turn of the port just past the seat, but there's a danger of breaking into the water jacket underneath the short turn. So opening up the bowls, port matching the first 1/2" of the intake port to the gasket, and narrowing the guide bosses will pick up some flow.
Earplugs and glasses are a must.

aside from all of the safety concerns home porting heads isn't that difficult. Like anything else in life there are rules, #1 first and foremost, don't touch the short side radius unless you have access to a flow bench and are experienced, you will do more harm than good if you don't follow this rule. a good place to start is by just doing a bowl port and maybe stream line the guides and a intake gasket match will produce a decent head. if there is anything I can answer for you feel free to send a pm.
Joey

well I have heard horror stories from pro head porters about home porting jobs. seems most of the time the heads are worse than when they were before porting.if you have no way of knowing which direction you are going and what effect your porting is doing how can you make progress? cleaning them up and blending is different but when you go changing the walls and the turns I bet you will get in trouble.

Biggest gain is in the bowls then the short turn and
just cleaning up the trees that are in the production
castings

The mopar templates will keep you out of trouble if you are careful. Just be absolutely sure you know how far to go, no further on metal removal.

You need one of these

Hints hear
http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tech/0610phr_cylinder_head_porting/index.html


more
http://www.popularhotrodding.com/enginem...eads/index.html

Part2 of the mopar one
http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/5118_cylinder_heads_ii/index.html

Mopar part 3
http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/5120_cylinder_heads_iii/index.html
wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porting_%28engine%29

Suggest you start with a set of head stands. Per the pic, mine are home made, fit many different heads, and act like a spit where you can rotate the heads 360 degrees for optimum angle of attack when grinding. After you have the heads lined up on your ( working height )bench, take the port you want to work on and break it down in to quadrants. Then take one quadrant ( lets say the bowl area ) and break it down in to quadrants. Grind on one quadrant of the bowl area, then move to the same area on the next port until you have all 8 ports done in that area. The idea is to maintain repeatability accross the ports. Don't grind to the finished size each time ether. I'm not an expert, but I have had great success this way improving factory port to port air flow variations. Last set of sm block heads I did I was able to improve the port to port air flow variation by more than 8%. It's not rocket science, and it is a lot of hard, dirty work, but you can make better flowing heads. Concentrate on areas that are obvious flow restrictions or look like they will cause turbulance. There is a lot of info out there on head porting. Gather all you can on your heads before you start.