A lot of people pointed out that I should be using a tungsten carbide cutting tool instead of those grindstones. Tried to find one locally, only ones I could find were $50 each and used a 1/4" shank, so I'd have to spin them with my drill as I don't have a suitable die grinder. So I'm ordering a set online. Just some cheapies that will fit in my RTX and hopefully won't explode, at least not until the port job is complete.
I picked up this cheap adjustable speed die grinder on Amazon a few years back, and it got me through porting a set of aluminum heads, intake manifold, and a bunch of work on my iron exhaust manifolds for my Ford small block.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0115XKA2I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The reviews were mixed, but it was cheap, and I didn’t need it to last longer than a single project. It’s still in my tool crib and soldiering along, so WFM!
EDIT: I also got a set of carbide burrs similar to what you pictured, as well as two longer ones (6” and 8” shank length IIRC) for harder to reach passages. Also a set of sandpaper rolls to achieve a final finish. It was many (!) hours of work but a proper die grinder at least allows your hand to be comfortable and maintain good control.. I can’t imagine how painful it’d be to use a hand drill instead.
A hand drill will spin slower than a die grinder, you actually have more control with the rotary file spinning faster.
Also be careful about eye protection, these things send a shower of metal bits thru the air.
Thanks for the recommendations on the die grinder - I'll first see if I can use these bits with my Dremel clone, but may need to plan out a Plan B item to order.
And yes, I'm definitely wearing goggles for this one.
A Slut Six Leaning Tower of Power seen last weekend in it's non native environment.
For inspiration......
That's wild. Is that a mechanical fuel injection setup?
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Probably not. It's Fopar's from Slantsix.org.
6 Mikuini Carbys Most likely.
Greg
That radiator tho...
jerrysarcastic (Forum Supporter) said:That radiator tho...
The radiator is there so he can drive it back on the return road instead of being towed.
It will also enable him to Hot Lap it, making back to back runs with no cool down.
The radiator is there so he can drive it back on the return road instead of being towed.
It will also enable him to Hot Lap it, making back to back runs with no cool down.
Sorry if that came off sounding a bit snarky... I’m genuinely fascinated by it. What is that, a dual pass radiator with the inlet/outlet on divided tank, and a filler neck welded to the high point?
so interesting... there is a lot to like about that build! :)
bentwrench said:
A Slut Six Leaning Tower of Power seen last weekend in it's non native environment.
For inspiration......
You may have just cost me a lot of.time and money. Because that is pure engine porn.
Now im going to have to build a t speedster with that setup.
Anyone have a cheap and decent slant six for a challenge build?
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :
Yes..
FBMktplace and CL are full of em.
If you decide to do one I will help in whatever way I can.
There are a few of us slant 6 junkies in KY, NC and VA Parts, Although I am in PA.. I can get you in contact with the slanted crew.
Greg
This roller Just sold for $325..
https://aarauctions.com/servlet/Search.do?auctionId=4093&itemId=95206
Greg
So, these cheap carbide burrs arrived. I put one on the RTX and cranked it up to maximum speed.
It may be cutting marginally faster than the grindstones, but I had turned the speed down with the stone in the hopes making it less likely I'd do damage getting started. But on the bright side, the carbide burr doesn't wear out after a half hour of use, either.
But then I had the threaded trim ring at the end of the grinder vibrate off.
After searching for several minutes, it looks like the trim ring has escaped for good. I decided to hope this missing part is just cosmetic and keep porting. If it damages the grinder, I'll get something better. Preferably one where the trim rings don't make a dramatic exit if you run it full speed.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
I believe those are only on there to protect the threads that allow you to turn the tool into a makeshift router (or use other attachments) so it should be fine that its gone, so long as you don't bugger up the threads.
Mr_Asa said:In reply to MadScientistMatt :
I believe those are only on there to protect the threads that allow you to turn the tool into a makeshift router (or use other attachments) so it should be fine that its gone, so long as you don't bugger up the threads.
Good - I have no intent of using this thing as a router anyway. Thanks for clearing that up.
Either these burrs cut a lot faster, or I'm starting to get the hang of the bowl work. I have all but one chamber worked over with the burr. The collet seems to be pretty worn (or possibly the burr's shank) since I keep having to tighten the collet after every couple minutes.
Next step - take on what Uncle Tony's Garage calls the "Hump of Doom."
Don't know why but I have them constantly slipping out of the collect, not sure why. Once you have a collection of these rotary files, or carbide bits, you will find a lot of uses for them.
The trick is high speed and a light touch. They do remove metal, often faster than you expect.
Every collet grip I have ever used has a loosening issue. Some take longer than others, but all of them do it. Add the force vector that is pulling away from the collet, like most carbide burrs and end mills, and learn to check on a time interval. This even happens in a bridgeport.
I also port matched the cylinder head and intake manifold. Oddly, the exhaust manifold seemed to need no port matching.
Looks like an update to my phone camera added watermarks to the pictures... not cool. I'll need to see what I can do about that.
340 valve springs are a common mod on a slant six. These fit just like stock, but I may need to mod the valve spring seats to handle a higher lift cam. I'm checking with the experts on slantsix.org for how much the valve guides and valve spring seats might need trimming.
That's the stock valve spring on the left, a 340 valve spring in the middle, and a dead bug that was too imposing to just throw away on the right.
Probably a bad time to tell you this, but gear oil makes for an incredible cutting fluid.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Probably a bad time to tell you this, but gear oil makes for an incredible cutting fluid.
At least I didn't get splattered with gear oil. 
Today I checked how much clearance the stock valve guides have for a more aggressive cam. So, I mocked things up with a valve, half a keeper, and a stem seal, with the friction in the valve guide and step seal holding the valve closed.
I used my calipers to check the distance to the valve spring base with the valve open...
...and with it closed. Looks like it's 0.400". The cam has 0.460" lift. So, looks like I'll need to have the machine shop trim down the valve guides a bit.
Also, I used some pieces of coffee filter as a cleaning patch to clear out the main oil galley since I'd ported the entrance.
Also, I figured out why my phone camera is putting that annoying watermark on all my photos, so future pictures won't flaunt how cheap I am with smartphones.
One nice thing i noticed when cleaning the oil galleys on the slant i just rebuilt is that you can basically visually see end to end on pretty much all of them. Really increased my confidence that they were clean because i could visually look down them and light up the other end with a flashlight.
I reused the totally stock head and valvesprings on this one, but i have a head off a later core engine that i plan to fix for it so your valve guide/seal thread is useful. One thing im glad i noticed about the newer head is that it already has a water port at the rear (for heater, looks like), which was something i was thinking about modding onto my ~71 head before noticing that. The idea is similar to the '4th cylinder cooling mod' we do on the later 'slant 4' turbo dodge cylinder heads to keep temperatures at the end of the engine down since the only thing even encouraging any coolant to flow there at all is just the different orifice sizes in the headgasket. On a slant it seems worse since the engine is longer and all the coolant inlets and outlets are at the front of it. Makes you wonder how much circulation is around the rear cylinders. Add questions about fuel and air distribution through the non-optimal manifolds and throw some boost in there and the limits might show up pretty quickly. I haven't done a lot of research about slants specifically but it's something ive noticed in my planning for my own setup on this slant car i want to turbo. So if you have the head off getting machined for valve seals etc you might want to decide if you want to route a coolant outlet out the back of the head and now being the best time to do that.
That is something to think about with the coolant flow.
I'm planning on the latest redo to tweak the wiring harness a bit for sequential fuel control and open up the option of individual cylinder tuning. Some of the injector connectors broke, and the harness had originally been designed for an MS1.
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