924Board.org

[Paul T.]

I am located in southern California and having a real bitch of a time finding someone I can trust to port and polish the head on my 924. I have spoken to a few shops but when I tell them they must be very careful because the water jackets are thin in these aluminum heads, they get scared and don't want to do it. If anyone knows of a place that you have had this done at and trust them not to screw me over, please let me know. If I have to mail it to a machine shop, I will. I just want the job done right and not have a screwed up cylinder head because they were inexperienced idiots. I love my little car and I don't want Macgilla Gorilla screwing it up. So, any info would be greatly appreciated folks. Thanks alot guys, I do trust you all when it comes to these little animals, you haven't led me wrong yet.

[eturbo924]

There is a shop in Cal that used to be called EuroRace... it is now Called European. I do not know the exact address so I do not know if it is in southern cal. Check my site... go to power tricks and read article on heavy breather. That is the shop... I think it will give you an address in the article. Oh I think there is a page missing. I need to correct this. Anyway I think the address is there though.

Eric

[924RACR]

You could also use Shine Racing Service in Walpole MA - they've race-prepped 924's...

_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[Paul T.]

Thanks Eric! I called Eurorace down in Redondo Beach and talked to the guy that does the work and he assured me that the job would be done right. Thanks a lot for the help, it really has paid off for me. By the way, they said it would cost $600 to have the head ported and polished, and have the new guides installed with all of the rebuild work included. Needless to say, I'm happy.

[eturbo924]

Paul

Glad I could help. I talked to the ower a few years ago, but decided that ship costs there and back would be to much. I spent that same amount $600 locally. I was impressed with the article and the amount of work European (EuroRace) performed in that article. I believe you will be happy with their work. Let us know how it comes out.

Eric

[Rick MacLaren]

...or you could do it yourself.

[Paul T.]

Do it myself!? Yea right, and monkeys are gonna fly out of my ass!

[Rick MacLaren]

Actually, the coincidence of porting and polishing, and "Monkey Flying out of Ass" is quite rare. However, there was an unfortunate incident in Poukeepsie where a monkey was seen flying out of someone's ass, but it was not well documented. Oh, and there was one similar incident in Area 51.

Oh come on! Don't be such a girlie man. Porting and polishing is cheap and easy.

1. Digital micrometer
2. Dremels and fine papers.
3. Match up your ports to the gaskets.

You can't flowbench the head, but so what? A simple porting is just hand tool work. Your sister could do it!

(I'm gonna get killed for this one)

[Paul T.]

Okay, okay, so maybe it's not that hard. But I have never done it before and if I were to screw up that head, it would cost big $$$ to replace it. And then, I would be too scared to try it again because I screwed up the first one. So, yes I could probably do it, but I would rather just pay a professional to do it right the first time. Besides, if they screw it up, it's on them, not me.

[924_fan]

Could you please tell us what the current address and phone number for EuroRace is.
Thanks

[Paul T.]

Eurorace
2899 W. 190th St.
Redondo Beach, CA. 90278
(310) 376-0247

Happy Motoring!

[Rick MacLaren]

Hi there,

Well you've got a good point there. If you're not comfortable doing it then don't do it.

I do know that Obin Robinson was successful doing it on his 924 NA. He had it in his apartment and just poked away at it for a few months.

Good luck with it.

[Peter]

Just to add my $.02, I ported & polished the head on my 931 and you could too. Before I begin my story, I will just give you a little background. Last summer I bought a 80' 931 that had some "problems." If I had not purchased the car, it would have surely gone to the junkyard. I bought it to learn how to rebuild it MYSELF. So the enjoyment of a true DIY project car was what I was after: paying someone to do it for me, even if they did it for free, would defeat the purpose of my acquiring the car. So I try to do everything myself, which my explain why I tried to P&P my head.
Anyway, before I undertook the task of Porting & Polishing (hereafter "P&P"), I did my research via the internet & books. Many companies offer P&P. However, to do it RIGHT requires (1) tools, (2) frequent visits to a flow bench, (3) rubber molds of ports, and (4) plenty of TIME. The technician works on one port, frequently hooking it to a flow bench to determine optimum flows based upon your camshaft specs and in what RPM range you will be running and making most power. One port is optimized after some time and numerous flow bench readings, then a rubber mold of that port is made. This rubber mold is used as a template to compare to the work done on the other ports. Remember, hooking a head to flow bench costs money --your money. Finally all ports are flow benched to verify that all ports have equal & optimum flow. This is a professional race prep job and costs thousands of dollars. Why, because the technicians time and the use of the equipment cost money. $600 for a P&P and head rebuild just buys you a simple head "clean-up."
A simple head "clean-up" is something anyone with half a brain, some patience, and at least one ball (need this for the fearless factor) can do themselves. Standard Abrasives has a great P&P manual/DIY-guide, and best of all it is free. http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyport.htm
Download this guide, read it over 4-5 times until you can give lectures on head P&P. Then get started. I bought their P&P kit from Jegs, but you can use your own sanding disks. I would recommend that you buy a carbide deburring tip. I purchased mine from Harbor Freight --about $12.00 and cuts through aluminum like butter. The stones seem to load up too much with aluminum, and even though you spray them with WD-40, it just makes a mess.
As for the 931 head, it's similar enough to the 924 head. The head is aluminum and is cast. A simple head "clean-up" -that is what you will be paying $600 for- just matches the intake ports, smoothes the exhaust ports, and removes the sharp edges, and on the 931/924 head, the casting marks which are very visible and can be felt with your finger. I won't go into details about P&P because the Standard Abrasives manual covers it in great detail. Use common sense and you can save yourself $600.
Few things I would like to note. It does take a lot of time. Hence, another reason why a professional job is not cheap. You will have a LOT of FEAR when you touch the grinder to your the head! I did! But it really is easy. Churchill said it best, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Try and get a scrap aluminum head or intake port from the junkyard and try P&P on it first. You will get the hang of it in no time. Just have faith in yourself. Second, Obin used the Standard Abrasives manual when he P&P, and he detailed his job on Pelican Parts, so go there and do a search.
-Peter A. Holiat

[TroyDest]

Peter, were you able to tell any before and after results on your 931?

[Peter]

Good question Troy,
Actually I have not yet put the car together. I am waiting for the machine shop to balance my parts, then I have to finish taking apart a 931 parts car that is residing in my garage before I could even begin putting together the 931. Then of course there is rebuilding the shift linkage, installing the 951 intercooler without removing the front panel, installing boost controller, etc, etc.
The purpose of my post was to impart that a simple port & polish is within the capabilities of all of us, and that even a simple port & polish will have a positive effect on performance. Reason? Because you are removing the restrictions in the airflow that are basically caused by the mass-production process. You are not re-engineering the head, that requires numerous flow bench testing and most likely quite a few sample heads to play with.
As for performance gains, the best I could do is compare my 931 to Vince's euro 931 (with boost and all being equal) and compare acceleration times, top speed within a certain gear (of course if the transmissions have different gearing then test would not be compatible). I will keep the list posted.
-Peter A. Holiat