Q-jet Questions

[Bob]

Originally Posted by oldskool

Yeah, I can understand that you can't be choosy when rare heads are involved. But what I'm talkin about is when your dealing with a very common and cheap head like the Pontiac 6x.

Anybody who has ever put a stock size intake or exhaust gasket up to the head and checked out the port size, knows that the size and shape of the ports can vary greatly even with exactly the same spec heads. When you just do a simple gasket match, you will need to grind different amounts, in different places on each head.

Therefore, not every 6x Pontiac head is created equal. Common sense says that some will flow slightly better than others. And since no porting is allowed, my thinking is that even the best valve job in the world can't make a worse flowing head, make more power than the better flowing head with the same valve job.

Now this is just country boy thinkin. If I'm wrong, somebody please explain to me how the head builder can make the worse flowing head make more power than the better flowing head, without porting. Hey, I'm not talkin 50hp difference here. But it seems that class racers are always lookin for hundreths and even thousandths of a sec. Correct ?

If you don't believe stocker heads and intakes are being ported, you have an education coming. I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm saying it so you know what you are up against. It would be tough to find a truly untouched head on anything that runs more than .50 under (unless you are running a odd combo or a turbo).

For cores, yes you want the best cores....head, intake, or carb. What you start with affects what you end up with.

Listen to Danny Ashley. He knows his stuff.