MESABALANCING

If you're serious about porting your own heads send me one and I'll finish one intake and exhaust port no charge so you can have a reference for shape and size it will most certainly be easier that way and I'll give you a list of the tools I use in the corners and the finish polish. It will take some time but if you go at it slowly you can get good results. Sincerely Laz

MESABALANCING

Today we start the intakes for the conversion to EFI I know many will say the intakes don't have anything to do with the heads but when we start the porting you will see how important it is because it will become an extension of the cylinder head . Also positioning the injectors in the correct location in regards to the port opening is also critical. Here's a look at the intake as it comes from the manufacturer and the fuel injector bungs which we use to weld to the intake which we make inhouse.

MESABALANCING

Today's work machined the intake and the fuel rails to fit the intake here's a couple before during and after



Finished machining the intake for the bungs.



Machined the billet fuel rail to fit the port spacing on the fuel injector bungs.




Tach welded and aligned the bungs to the fuel rail.



Finished welded and ready for injectors . Next well mock it up on the engine and fit to heads if needed port and send out to hard coat anodize.
We'll be making noise in the dyno room soon.

dereknkathy

With efi single planes being very little more than the carb version, I assume you aren't in love with where they decided the injectors should go?

MESABALANCING

You know we put a bunch of research into using parts that are readily available because time is money as they say this particular intake has a very long runner for a single 4 set up and also the cross sectional area is very good as well . In the past I had been a firm believer of the Dart intake which in my opinion is one of the greatest cast intakes made for a BBC but after much testing we have made very good gains with this intake. Also its not to say I don't use the Dart anymore it still has its place for different applications. Here is a picture of my personal engine and I used a Dart for it this is a pump gas 540 Hydraulic roller it made 749 Hp at 5900 and 740 ft lbs at 5300 but it makes over 720 ft lbs everywhere above 2300 rpm with exhaust temps within 120 degrees spread. We were mocking the intake to check alignment and fit here.





Also here's a Holley piece on a 600 HP pump gas EFI I guess what I'm trying to say is there's an application for the EFI shelf intakes but to make power you really need to make your own at least at this moment because non of the good intakes are being made for EFI yet and as you know much of our industry is wanting to go in that direction.



And no we were not using the thunderbolt dist it's there to mock up the location for the making of the wiring harness which we also make our own to fit so we have no extra wires and everything fits right

MESABALANCING

Here start's the fun part of fitting and assembly of all components. The cylinder heads came back from hard coat anodize we use a 5 hour process were we actually anodize them twice for the best penetration into the castings. Unfortunately it's time consuming but as you guys know from post here the aluminum will last twice as long as the untreated counterparts.



As you can see the polish from the porting is somewhat lost due to the color the anodizing leaves behind but the surface finish is still the same.



We anodize the heads after the porting work is finished so as to cover the entire surface both inside the head and out many of the manufacturers will anodize the castings and then machine leaving the machined surfaces such as the gasket and port surfaces being exposed.



The seats have to be refinished regardless when they come back because the guides are removed for the porting and anodizing.


Here is the rocker section of the cylinder heads after the anodize prepped for the guides.

dereknkathy

anodizing. there is an aluminum exhaust that advertizes an anodized coating that gets 10 years of use out of the manifold in salt water use. would this anodizing process have similar results, and is somebody set up with room for enough volume that EMI or GIL could run several hundred manifolds thru their facility without tying up their shop to the point of paralysis? or would exhaust fire burn it out of the non-water area anyway rendering it essentially useless for this application? And back on topic. I assume you feel the same way about the victor jr, which seems to be the preferred hp500 clone intake these days?

MESABALANCING

Remember paper and nowadays the internet hill hold anything one writes. I don't feel there's anything that will make aluminum survive 10 years in saltwater. Remember my saying the only thing saltwater doesn't damage is the fish. As we have seen from the anodizing process that I will say is the life expectancy for aluminum heads and intakes is 2 to 3 years treated and 1 year untreated . If you have ever had engines with them you know . Also I can add to that the stainless exhaust in the market today have prices that can choke a horse and from my personal experience if you get 3 years out of them without damaging the engine you have done great. Some of the best exhaust products we use is Stainless marines dominator manifolds they have a either 3 or 5 year warranty and yes they make serious power.

MESABALANCING

Today we're doing a not so glorious job but it has to be done prepping the intake welded bungs so we can start to port the intake . Check out the angle and position of the bungs.

MESABALANCING

Finishing the valve seat machining after the hardcoat and the re install of the valve guides we'll be ready for final cylinder head assembly as soon as we set up the rocker stand height for the proper rocker tip to valve tip angle .