New guy with questions

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Anonymous

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Hi, my name is Mike Bishop, I write about old-Ford hot rods and hot rodding for a living. I've been immersed in flathead V8s for the past decade, learning the lessons I missed in my youth. Chief among these is block porting which has occupied much of my time during the past three years.

I was recently approached to port a cylinder head for a 215 I6. The fellow isn't looking for anything radical, just a nice improvement in performance. Other than a routine port matching job, does anyone have some specifics that would help the little six breathe better? The flowbench I have access to is a couple of hours away, and while it would be interesting to see just how far we could play with this head, I'd prefer to do a more practical job for the fellow.

I'd also appreciate any recommendations for cam specs/grinds, valve train improvements, intake manifold/carburetion, exhaust system, and ignition.

TIA for any and all help.
 
Here is a old Clifford Spec sheet for the 223/262. You may be able to gleen some information from it. From what I heard, the 215 and 223 had the same bore but different stroke. Could be wrong, though.

Look down a few posts in on this board for the 215/223/262 post. In there you will find wisconsinmike, who owns 215 with a worked over head.

Keep us updated, would love to hear how it works out...
 
There's no cookbook recipe for a vintage engine like this one, but it should respond to all the usual tricks. Shoot for velocity improvements over sheer volume, and don't get too radical.

If the head is typical of most stock engines, 75% of all your gains can be found in the area just under the valve seats. Smoothing the transitions and allowing the air to go where it wants to go will get you some decent gains.

Three or four angle valve jobs are commonplace as are port matching the intake. Reduced diameter stems and swirl polished heads on the valves are winners as well.

If you have the shekels, extrude honing the intake and exhaust manifolds will help, but headers and an aftermarket intake would be better.
 
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