Future of head porting

[SpeierRacingHeads]

It's sharing your genuine perspective, pride, and talent with the world that will resonate.


BOOM! exactly. The only way to keep what you have is to pass it on.

[David Redszus]

Perhaps the larger and more important question to ask is: "What is the future of racing?"

Auto racing, once the development/testing/marketing arena of manufacturers, has
declined to a level of mere entertainment.

The true racer has evolved into low buck, part-time, amateurs, who buy parts made by others
which they do not understand and can make only incremental improvements. And only when
allowed by race sanctioning authorities. (Wear your mask, or else).

We (collectively) buy parts (heads, pistons, rods, cranks, cams, tires, transmissions, etc), and
bolt them together with little or no understanding of how they actually function and how to
make worthwhile improvements. Then when we fail to win, we complain that it is due to a
lack of money; but never due to a lack of knowledge. Or failure to innovate. We cling to
obsolete engines, chassis and fueling systems using cost as an excuse for a lack of understanding.

Having observed the Formula SAE university engineering student competition for the last
15 years, I have become bitter about the fact that almost no improvements are allowed
inside engines and fuel chemistry. Of the top 10 finalists at a recent competition, 7 were
not from US schools.

Why are we porting heads? Every OEM knows how to make a very high air flowing port.
And chambers and pistons, and cranks, and...they can build them cheaper than any of us can.

When we were developing two stroke engines, we asked Yamaha engineering for assistance.
Their reply was: why do you take our motocross engines and try to make road racing
engines out of them? Why not buy our engines that are designed for road racing?
We buy oranges and then try to make them into apples; or vice versa.

When the current EV madness subsides, we might return to ICE that are much more
advanced than what we are now offered. Or not. When a woman was asked where
the electric power to recharge her EV came from, she announced: "From the wall outlet."

[Walter R. Malik]

When the current EV madness subsides, we might return to ICE that are much more
advanced than what we are now offered. Or not. When a woman was asked where
the electric power to recharge her EV came from, she announced: "From the wall outlet."

Amateur racing today is all about BUYING what could work instead of MAKING what could work and THAT is really sad.

Every electric vehicle is most likely connected to a smoke stack at sometime.

[digger]

Elon Musk is the one who could wipe out the performance industry..........all the investing he is doing, he could just buy out the performance industry one by one.......and then there is no performace parts.

It's scary, but that's the hard truth.

So we just got to get out there and have our racing fun while we can with the combustion engine.

Don't think musk is going to go that route, but also remember the automobile replaced the horse and buggy, we still race horses. I think automotive machining is going to become a somewhat rare specialty in the next 30 years. The one company I think that could breathe more life into the ice is Mazda.

Hot Rodders will be building better battery packs, and winding special armatures, designing battery management software, As you say people still make money raising horses, and people still love to own and ride them. So it will be with the internal combustion engine. Electric cars are already faster, look at the new electric Mustang, but the sound of a good exhaust note is something people will still want to enjoy.

https://www.motor1.com/news/442400/elec ... rter-mile/

yeah its going to suck big time, zero character at all.

[1980RS]

A guy at the bar where we all hang out to talk racing asked me why I waste my time on peanut port heads, I told him "because the little heads smoke the crap out of all your BBC heads". He shut up after that. For me racing is about what I can get out of something not out of some new I can buy.

[David Redszus]

A guy at the bar where we all hang out to talk racing asked me why I waste my time on peanut port heads, I told him "because the little heads smoke the crap out of all your BBC heads".He shut up after that. For me racing is about what I can get out of something not out of some new I can buy.

Bravo!!!

If you buy something, you learn how to shop around.

If you build something, you learn 100 things you did not know before.

[BILL-C]

We are porting more heads than ever. I am pleasantly surprised how high the demand is.Apparently most shops that do their own porting or sell heads ported by someone else are noticing the same thing. Why all the doom and gloom? I predict the demand to be very strong for a long time. It will , however, require the use of modern technology to be competative like EVERY other job!

[steve cowan]

We are porting more heads than ever. I am pleasantly surprised how high the demand is.Apparently most shops that do their own porting or sell heads ported by someone else are noticing the same thing. Why all the doom and gloom? I predict the demand to be very strong for a long time. It will , however, require the use of modern technology to be competative like EVERY other job!

I agree,
Here in Australia the automotive scene is bigger than ever,people are pouring money into cars ,engines etc like there is no tomorrow
I am only a home hobby guy but involved and it is bigger than ever and ain't going away no matter what the media says.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

We are porting more heads than ever. I am pleasantly surprised how high the demand is.Apparently most shops that do their own porting or sell heads ported by someone else are noticing the same thing. Why all the doom and gloom? I predict the demand to be very strong for a long time. It will , however, require the use of modern technology to be competative like EVERY other job!

Why the doom and gloom?

Because the value of the work is low.
At Edelbrock it was seen as the cost of doing business, not a profit center.
They could not keep anyone that was competent for long as they would go to aerospace for more money and career development.

[hoffman900]

We are porting more heads than ever. I am pleasantly surprised how high the demand is.Apparently most shops that do their own porting or sell heads ported by someone else are noticing the same thing. Why all the doom and gloom? I predict the demand to be very strong for a long time. It will , however, require the use of modern technology to be competative like EVERY other job!

Why the doom and gloom?

Because the value of the work is low.
At Edelbrock it was seen as the cost of doing business, not a profit center.
They could not keep anyone that was competent for long as they would go to aerospace for more money and career development.

I think the future is fine if you're established at in the last 1/3 of your career.

The future is probably not bright for anyone in their 20s, was my point. 45 years is 2066 (assuming we're giving advice to a 22yo, retirement is 67yo, and this is what they want to do for a career)... that's a long time away.

[BILL-C]

We are porting more heads than ever. I am pleasantly surprised how high the demand is.Apparently most shops that do their own porting or sell heads ported by someone else are noticing the same thing. Why all the doom and gloom? I predict the demand to be very strong for a long time. It will , however, require the use of modern technology to be competative like EVERY other job!

Why the doom and gloom?

Because the value of the work is low.
At Edelbrock it was seen as the cost of doing business, not a profit center.
They could not keep anyone that was competent for long as they would go to aerospace for more money and career development.

I think the future is fine if you're established at in the last 1/3 of your career.

The future is probably not bright for anyone in their 20s, was my point. 45 years is 2066 (assuming we're giving advice to a 22yo, retirement is 67yo, and this is what they want to do for a career)... that's a long time away.

My youngest son is 30 years old and will be taking over the business in stages. Yes, he has a huge advantage over a 22 year old just starting out with just a die grinder. The required skillset to start a business from scratch is a little different than taking over an existing successful one and improving it. When mike finished his Army career he used the GI bill to get his business degree. More education in manufacturing technologies is next. I believe that one of the major problems that our industry suffers from is the total lack of any business skills possessed by most of the shop owners. Making the chips is the easy part. I am confident that the future will bring many changes to this profession and the guys closer to the leading edge with modern equipment, knowledge, and business savy will be able to make a decent living at head porting. The rest will never be able to make it more than just a hobby , do it too cheap, and continue to devalue the service.

[David Redszus]

The profit is made when the sale is made.
Everything after that is a rising cost center.

If someone is bright enough to understand how to properly port heads,
then they could do the same for manifolds and headers.

Is a complete engine that far behind?

[GARY C]

Every head I have had digitized the master ended up flowing more.


I don’t know how a shop could operate in places where properties cost so much. Cylinder head porters are not making near the hourly rate of other careers. For instance I had an electrician come out and tie in the power to my mini split and to the electrical panel. (I had already bought the wire and ran it through conduit.) He was going to charge me $900 until I flipped out on him. 3hours of work and no special equipment needed besides a fluke meter to make $300 an hour. I charge $950 to port a set of heads. It takes 40 hours requires a 30k seat and guide machine a 40k surfacer and a 10k flowbench. We aren’t making shit. On top of that unlike other careers you don’t just do a job, you have to be the BEST at what you do. Nobody wants the second best head porter but for an electrician you just pick one.

I could go on but let’s face it nobody reads long.

This is where I think most porters go wrong, to support the cost of seat, guide and surfacing machines you need to be doing mass production.

When I did this stuff I had a shop that did that for me at a reduced rate so I made a percentage, If I did a base port job for myself or the shop I made $600.00 "cash", with no debt or overhead that can add up depending on how much you wish to do.

If someone was looking for the very last HP from a port job I sent them to a more advanced porter and he charged what he charged but he also used the shop I used for surfacing and valve work so he didn't spend money on equipment that ate his profit.

[SchmidtMotorWorks]

Every head I have had digitized the master ended up flowing more.


I don’t know how a shop could operate in places where properties cost so much. Cylinder head porters are not making near the hourly rate of other careers. For instance I had an electrician come out and tie in the power to my mini split and to the electrical panel. (I had already bought the wire and ran it through conduit.) He was going to charge me $900 until I flipped out on him. 3hours of work and no special equipment needed besides a fluke meter to make $300 an hour. I charge $950 to port a set of heads. It takes 40 hours requires a 30k seat and guide machine a 40k surfacer and a 10k flowbench. We aren’t making shit. On top of that unlike other careers you don’t just do a job, you have to be the BEST at what you do. Nobody wants the second best head porter but for an electrician you just pick one.

I could go on but let’s face it nobody reads long.

This is where I think most porters go wrong, to support the cost of seat, guide and surfacing machines you need to be doing mass production.

When I did this stuff I had a shop that did that for me at a reduced rate so I made a percentage, If I did a base port job for myself or the shop I made $600.00 "cash", with no debt or overhead that can add up depending on how much you wish to do.

If someone was looking for the very last HP from a port job I sent them to a more advanced porter and he charged what he charged but he also used the shop I used for surfacing and valve work so he didn't spend money on equipment that ate his profit.

$900/40hrs = $22hr
$600/40hrs = $15hr

[SpeierRacingHeads]

When I started full time in 2005, I purchased a new 10x54 knee mill. I did my valve jobs, surfacing all with it. About a year later, I needed another, so I bought a new 9x49, just to do valve jobs. Then I decided I needed a dedicated S&G machine, dedicated surfacer.......

In 2021, every piece of equipment is paid for. I get in trouble when I look at new shiney CNC machines, or new shiney Serdi's... I keep it in perspective, and what I use works well.

Morel of the story, find your niche and forget about keeping up with the Jones.