Well I pulled my 383 apart last night and it had some damage. Looks like the machinest didn't check the clearneces properly and I munched some pushrods. While Im saving up to fix everything and upgrade a little [ :D ] I was thinking about doing a very basic clean up of my heads. I know vortecs dont like their port shape changed much, so what can I do thats simple to help out a little?

Just do some bowl work. If you'd like to install some larger valves, put in some 1.6 exhaust valves and leave the intake alone. Polish the chambers too, but don't change the shape. David Vizard has some very good write ups on this in his Building Small Blocks On A Budget book. Good stuff.

One of the mag's just did a very good article that with the help of a Pro- head man show's and tell's a heck of a bunch of info about porting them. See if you can't turn up a copy..

pdq67

All I know is that some of the traditional porting techniques can hurt the Vortec's more than help. Just do plenty of homework before jumping in. I'm sure some people here have experience good and bad with porting the Vortec's.

pdq67--
i believe that was car craft that did the before and after of porting vortec heads? correct me if im wrong...i will look around and see what issue it was and report back with that info. sorry this doesn't help much.

As usual, I can't lay my hands on my copy of it...

pdq676

I was thinking about just smoothing down the ridge by the valve opening and taking down the valve guide slightly. That car craft issue would be awsome if you can find the month it is smile.gif

Originally posted by bored&stroked:
I was thinking about just smoothing down the ridge by the valve opening and taking down the valve guide slightly. That car craft issue would be awsome if you can find the month it is smile.gif Exactly what I was thinking. Some mods to the valves might help too --- like backcutting the intake and exhaust, that's supposedly worth 3-4 cfm. A small radius on the edge (chamber side) of the exhaust valve might help a little too.

bored&stroked--
sorry, i still can't find that issue but i did a search for the keywords vortec heads on car crafts sight and it came back with these results, heres the link:
http://www.carcraft.com/searchresults/?scope=T&sitename=carcraft&terms=vortec+heads
the first couple of pages deal with home porting of vortec heads and might be of some value to you. i will keep looking for that issue though and good luck with your venture into porting vortec heads!
BTW....let me know how it goes i was thinking of ported vortec heads to replace my stockers.
-jay

Here's an article from CHP on porting SBC heads. It's not Vortec specific, but it offers a few basics that may help.

Edit: Oops! Forgot the link: http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/95518/

I found it!

It was in the other "Throne's" room, He, He!!

Car Craft, July, 2003.. VERY GOOD READ, imho...

Try you local Public Library AND maybe you will get lucky and they will have a copy....

pdq67

I printed that a while ago. Can't seem to get the first article to work, it's showing 404 not found. This should be the follow up article with some results.
http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0306_vort/index2.html

pdq--
finally found mine too....sitting right next to the porcelian throne where i left it!! haha always in the most obvious spots.yea it is july 2003 though.

Do a search here.

Garryatgmpp posted some stuff they did on vortec heads.

I have heard a lot of conflicting things about what helps and what hurts with vortecs. Most of the "helps" stuff delt with the exhaust side. most stuff I read says that the intake side is hard to improve.

Originally posted by cperrell:
Do a search here.

Garryatgmpp posted some stuff they did on vortec heads.

I have heard a lot of conflicting things about what helps and what hurts with vortecs. Most of the "helps" stuff delt with the exhaust side. most stuff I read says that the intake side is hard to improve. I have gary's info memorized :D But his stuff is not really anything I can do at home on my first attempt at porting. I read that article, thanks for the issue guys. Lots of sweet info.