Exhaust port polishing on Duratec - worth it?

[Guest]

As I was fitting the primaries to the head today on a new build I noticed that the inside of the exhaust ports were really quite a rough casting with lumps and bumps throughout. I don't intend to do anything now as I'd rather finish the build first but was wondering what the perceived wisdom was on here regarding polishing of the ports.

 

Is it worth it?

Is it pointless if your not going to do the inlet side as well?

 

Thoughts anyone?

[oilyhands]

It can't hurt to remove the worst of the lumps and bumps, but don't bother polishing. The greatest effect is from work around the valve seats and as you surmise, work on the inlet ports is generally more productive.

 

Oily

[Guest]

Thanks Oily,

 

Perhaps a stupid question but is it OK to do this with the exhaust valves still in the head if you are careful? I wasn't so much worried about hitting the valves, I was more concerned that shards that have come off the head might not be what you'd ideally want.

 

Tom

[DJ.]

As you have a new engine under warranty from Caterham, I wouldn't do anything to it that could allow them an excuse not to cover you if it goes wrong!

 

I assume the warranty is still only 1 year from when the kit is delivered

I decided it was well worth getting the build done quickly and getting some miles in before the warranty ended.

 

Duncan

 

Edited by - DJ. on 27 Aug 2013 18:11:02

[Klunk]

Hi Tom .

 

As DJ says, I would steer well clear of tinkering until your warranty is up.

 

Doing head work with the head on the car is a recipe for disaster. The smallest piece of swarf missed is a potentially knackered engine. It's definitely a head off, valves etc out, job. Also if you're not sure what you're doing, it's definitely best left to the those that do.

 

What spec engine do you have?

 

Regards,

Giles

[Guest]

Yea don't panic, I've got no intention of messing around with that until quite some time further down the line, was just curious more than anything. It's the first time I've ever really seen exhaust ports on a new engine and I didn't realise they'd be so rough. Guess that's the result of casting the heads.

 

Giles - it's a SuperSport R so plenty of grunt to be getting on with. I only hope that upgraditis doesn't set in too quickly 😬

 

Edited by - TomWoodis on 27 Aug 2013 22:42:15

[Klunk]

*thumbup*

 

Nice spec; plenty of power to get you through the warranty 😬. When you're trying to put your feet through the floor to go quicker, that's the time to upgrade

 

Regards,

Giles

 

 

[Rob Walker]

I think that you will gain nothing in polishing the exhaust ports. I would certainly not do this without the head off as you run the risk of getting abrasives into the cylinders with the head on and it will be impossible to get to the area that matters around the valves seats. Leave it alone.

 

Rob

[Barry]

Before you start, you may want to have a read of this useful guide: porting and polishing.

[Klunk]

😬 😬

[Paul McKenzie]

"Hey guys, please help with my mods gone wrong.....

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey guys, I've got a 98 1.8T. I've had a k04 and chip for a while and wanted to get more performance. I was recommended to port and polish the intake and exhaust. We found out they used abrasive material to do it like gritty sand. So I got with my friend that tunes Hondas and we decided to try it ourselves. We got a bag of sandblasting sand and hooked up into the intake and started the car. We had to hold the gas so it would run. He wanted to let the engine suck in the sand through the intake so it would port it out and then push it out the ehxaust so it would port the exhaust manifold.

I was worried that it might cause problems but he figured it'd be OK as long as we didn't make boost and it get sucked in the turbo. After running the car and letting it suck in sand we got about half way through a 25 lb bag. The check engine light was on and the engine was bucking and kicking and sounding really weird. We stopped and hooked the car back up normal and took off the sand supply. We tried to start it again and it was really hard. Once started it couldn't idle and kept making weird noises. We took it out and drove it and it started to make scraping and knocking noises.

Help! Can anyone tell me what to do! My buddy only does Hondas so he doesn't know much about Audis. "

 

Terrific 😬

 

 

 

[Guest]

😳

 

Someone get ready to give that man a Darwin Award, it's surely only a matter of time.

 

I'm hoping that was a wind up but it wouldn't surprise me if it wasn't!

[Birkin S3 ZA.]

Take it to a quite road and burn it 😳 😳

tell your insurance company it was stolen *nono*