internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

depends on what cams you are comparing them too, compare them to the price of cams for an old school small block chevy and they seem VERY expensive. Compare them to a cam for a VE and they seem downright reasonable

Nismo87SE

There is nothing wrong with porting your exh mani but there are very little gains. On my old VG I did bolt ons + cams and I have to say the cams made the biggest difference. I had the isky 262 grind and my vg pulled to 6000rpm no problem. I know that with a good set of headers + cams a VG would put down good power.

sleepyvg30e

iTrader: (1)

i have a problem now im instaling my udp soon and it turns out im gonna need air tools in order to do the job properly so i might as well buy an air compressor and use it for this job too...

so what exactly should i look for when buying a compressor a die grinder and an impact wrench?

since i got such a horrible reaction to the cordless dremel i was thinking about buying i figured u guys would know the proper air tools to use ...

300zmax

you need to find a compressor that will hold enough for the grinder. i feel after use air grinders for years that my electric is above and beyond better. dremel makes a great corded grinder. burned threw a set of cast iron 302 heads with one. worked great.

i pulled my UDP with out the impact. i used a breaker bar and a large strap wrench. if you dont have a strap wrench, i know this is strange but i used an old alternator belt clamped down with vise grips. worked well on my brothers civic

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

Too remove it use your starter, a socket, and a large breaker bar resting against the LCA than bump the starter it will break the pulley bolt loose. To tighten you may have to remove flexplate shield and wedge a large screwdriver between the housing and the teeth while you torque the crank pulley.

sleepyvg30e

iTrader: (1)

ok i see i assumed that air grinders were the higher quality and electric was a cheap alternative i guess i can give some of the "home methods" people have suggested a try then

i just figured air tools were the best for porting and grinding

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

electric is more consistent than air on a grinder.
air you have to hope the compressor is up to the task. and then it still needs to run alot to keep up which means noise.

300zmax

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/litera...05.06B_MED.pdf

this has some awsome info on grinding heads. will work with you manifolds.
i like makita and millwakee grinders. but harborfreight is good because if you get the warrenty, you can replace it in store no questions asked and no long waits for shipping.
i have used the kit the PDF speaks of works great but you may not need it.

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

I've never had much luck with any of the air/power tools you get from harbor freight. the build quality is just crap and I get mad every time I use them. I've got a small die grinder and an air drill I bought from them. both are junk. I finally broke down and bought a quality ingersoll rand die grinder and it's 10x the tool the cheapo HF unit was. (It was 10x the price too, but it's obvious you get what you pay for!)

sleepyvg30e

iTrader: (1)

how does this one look for an ingersool die grinder @ $48
http://www.redhillsupply.com/IRT307A.htm

and i found this impact wrench for the udp for $120
http://www.redhillsupply.com/FPT744.htm

ans dince ingersoll compressor is $900 or more if found this one for $80
http://www.chpower.com/webapp/wcs/st...-1_10646_10692_

and is it okay to just use the burrs and other accessories from harbor freight?

300zmax

I dont think that compressor is going to do very well for you. i here the f bombs dropping already! i highly recommend electric. the grinder is the same as i have from harbor freight. and they are junk. but they work sorta. but that compressor is going to be your Achilles’ heel. you need 10 gal and bigger. i have a 5 gal for sand blasting and it runs out of steam in 2 minutes and takes ten to re charge but since your doing manifolds IMPE i stress electric.

jakeru

I have had great luck with my $10 harbor freight air-powered die grinder (which looks near-exactly like that ingersoll-rand you pictured, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if they were both made in the same chinese plant )

This is the harbor freight one I think I may have:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=36572

I have used it for all kinds of porting work, and it still works like new (except there is one plastic nose piece that is cracked from when my brother used it to port one of his cast iron V8 heads, but it makes no difference to the function.) I do recall disassembling it in the early days, and cleaning out (WD-40 everywhere) a bunch of condensed water/rusty parts, I think that happened due to improper maintenance at the beginning (before I started adding a drop of oil periodically into the inlet, to keep it working well.) I also am running an extra drier on the compressor outlet, which may help as well. The disassembling and cleaning restored it to "better than new" function (maybe because it's now "broken in", or the chinese didn't clean out the metal chips during assembly? I dunno.) but whatever 1 drop of air tool oil into the inlet before each new day that I use the thing, and it's running strong and probably will for many more years.

So in short... I would recommend the $10 harbor freight die grinder if you are looking to save money and just learning how to maintain your first air tool. If you find it doesn't work, you aren't out a whole lot of money. You can take it apart and try to fix it if you are so inclined, and at least if you can't get it back together you aren't out a whole lot of money. LOL!

As for the compressor, I agree that this is where you will need to spend some cash to get one suitable for driving a die grinder for extended periods. The air accessories (drier, hoses, regulators, etc) also do add up on cost.

I am using a harbor freight vertical [edit: checked and it's the 21 gallon "central pneumatic" model], with "direct drive" motor... looks *just* like this one, but I know mine's 120V (not 240V):
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93271

After some pretty extensive modifications, I've improved it to the point where it is "adequate" for extended die grinding use, but I still find it would be nice to have a bigger one. (two-stage, or belt-driven.) It is quite noisy also. The mods I have done allow it to run at 100% duty cycle: a big electric fan on the back end, addition of sheetmetal shrounding to force cooling air close to the "block" and cylinder head, and I even had the cheap-o chinese headgasket fail due to... get this being "contaminated by oil", and replaced that headgasket with one made custom (cut out of bulk gasket material.) The new headgasket is "oil resistant". The other mod I made to it was increasing the pressure it regulates at inside (kicks on at ~100psi, off at about 120'psi.) It originally kicked on I recall at ~80psi which wasn't enough.

So I would plan at least one step-up from that in terms of the motor, to be happy without doing "extensive modifications" as I had to do to mine (to increase cooling, etc) This one, with belt driven and dual cylinder features, would have much more power and may be something you will be pleased with:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=92504
but notice besides costing a few hundred $, it also requires 240V electric power.

The one I've got doing only 100 psi before the compressor kicks in, just isn't enough to satisfactory drive my $10 harbor freight cut-off wheel. (Or maybe, that cut-off wheel is just a POS and I need to take it apart and "blueprint" it like I did my die grinder. )

Anyway, if you want to save yourself a whole lot of money and get a "professional quality" porting setup, go electric. You'll need to spend a substantial sum of money to get a suitable compressor setup. Also you may be getting into the 240V electrical category. Or certainly pushing the limits of what a single 120V circuit can provide. If you have a weak motor, a big air tank makes up for it, but you'll still need to occasionally take breaks to allow the motor to charge up the tank. And that motor is going to be running at 100% duty cycle. A useful rule of thumb I've developed: if the motor or cylinder head of the compressor is running too hot to touch, you're likely exceeding the duty cycle it can reasonable be expected to perform at.

I know when I ran mine too hot, something got screwed up with it that I had to fix, I just can't remember what that was at the moment. As you might imagine, they just don't like running too hot. Really the addition of the sheetmetal shrouding made all the difference, with the shrouding I rarely find I even use the big electric cooling fan that I added on. But I would recommend saving yourself the headache and just buying one that is up to do the job in the first place. A good general motto I've developed regarding cheaper, harbor freight-style or comparable Chinese-made items: only if you are OK with taking them apart to fix them, possibly even before you really start using them, will you be generally pleased with them. If you really expect them to work completely well the moment you bring them home, good chance you will be frusterated. But they are a good value for those willing (and capable) to 'tinker" around with them.

300zmax

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...2724_200032724

i like their products and this will work for a long long time. but shop around, grizzly is not the cheapest by far, i wouldn't be surprised if you can get this model for 20$ cheaper.

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/litera...05.06B_MED.pdf

If you plan it out right you can get a great set up for reasonable cost and something you can use for years to come.

jakeru

If you haven't purchased any porting tools yet, this weekend would be a good time from harbor freight because if you print out this coupon and bring it with you you'll get 20% off everything:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ema...9_retailU.html