2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Topic: 2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics (Read 5350 times) previous topic - next topic

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

September 20, 2009, 01:56:54 AM

This is the first one of these E6 manifolds I've gotten around to porting, so dont laugh.

A Local guy with a SVO/Capri hybrid with FMIC, intake/TB and some other mods already done had this extra E6 manifold layin around and he wanted me to port this one to see what kind of gains he might get from it.

Obviously most of the pics are where the turbo mounts up. First ones are of it rock stock, unported. Then some in-progress, and finally the finished product.

I'm not sure what kind of additional responsiveness he can expect from the turbo with this ported manifold or what power will be gained but I was able to straighten the worst turns and get pretty far up into the 2 adjacent runners and give the others a good basic cleanup, sooo.. we'll see once he gets it bolted on and reports back to me.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #1 – September 20, 2009, 06:02:37 PM

Don't suppose you've had a chance to test it yet? It would be good to have some numbers for comparison, spool time, acceleration, etc.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #2 – September 20, 2009, 07:44:19 PM

Quote from: t3skidoo;291952

Don't suppose you've had a chance to test it yet? It would be good to have some numbers for comparison, spool time, acceleration, etc.

I agree. Sorry I dont have any hard data to offer. The guy just called me a little while ago after swapping the ported manifold on and getting the turbo and everything back on and hooked up. After taking it out on the highway and flogging it for a while, he was adamant that it made a very, very noticeable seat of the pants difference.. both in terms of turbo responsiveness and of course, overall acceleration.

I did ask if he could even throw a wild guess at it, and he imagined it had to be at least be contributing another 20hp/tq and a wider powerband. So take that for what its worth. Having never ridden in the car myself, before or after, I cant offer any impressions of my own.

I forget now if he told me he had put the car on a dyno with just the bolt-ons he had before or not. I'll ask next time I talk to him.

His engine itself is stock right, but he has given me a spare cylinder head to look over and see what I can do, so I'll try to post up some good before/after pics of what I find to do with it.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #3 – September 23, 2009, 10:10:43 AM

Alright, asked him yesterday if he had it on a dyno prior to the ported exhaust manifold swap, he had it on HP's dynojet in Orange Park, FL and it made 183rwhp and he couldnt remember the exact torque number or the RPMs they occured at without looking at the printout again, so I'll try to get that number too. Those numbers were on essentially stock motor by getting air/fuel ratio looking good at all RPM's, but was prior to him installing the FMIC/better IC piping/gutted lower intake/custom upper intake/forward facing 5.0L throttle body.

Not sure how much the FMIC, piping and intake would've added, in addition to the ported exhaust manifold he just bolted on a few days ago, as he hasnt had a chance to get it back on the dyno yet. But hopefully he'll get some numbers to reflect those changes before anything else is done in the interest of at least getting an idea of what power increases are coming from what.

As I mentioned before, he gave me an extra head to look at for porting. I've taken some pics of it with the valves removed, in order to see what kind of ugliness is in the valve pockets to hurt airflow and power. Turns out there's plenty. Room for improvement in the chambers too. I'll post up pics of what area I'm porting as I get the chance. If anyone has any suggestions on what porting improvements have worked for them, please post it up. Sorry the pic quality sucks, if anyone wants better pics of something specific, post it up and I'll try to get those taken too.

Exhaust valve throat:

Intake valve throat:

Chamber:

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #4 – September 28, 2009, 07:01:22 PM

Update, finally got a chance to do a little rough-in porting under the intake valve and recontouring the valve guide boss, so I took a couple pics.

Like I said earlier, the short turn had a pretty bad ledge and the angles left from the factory machining for the valve seats weren't doing much for flow either. Just between working those two areas and the valve guide boss, this represents a pretty fair amount of metal being removed.

Luckily, the remainder of the port and the transitions, even stock, dont look all that bad so I dont expect to remove much metal from them beyond just a basic cleanup. It might take a little while to get the exhaust throats and the rest of the intakes roughed-in, so finish pics could be a ways off but I'll try to update in between other projects as time allows.

Intake bowl before:

Intake bowl after:

Intake bowl before (pic taken at angle to show short side restriction):

Intake bowl after:

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #5 – October 03, 2009, 02:03:54 AM

I was just turned on to this site....thanks Sumthin Nuu. I am the guy these parts are being ported for.

First off I want to clear the air and talk about the prior tuning session. I was having power issues, and fuel mileage issues.

The car in its stock form with the only mods at the time being an underdrive crank pulley and full 3" exhaust with a Flowmaster 40 series made, 183.06 rwhp @ 4800 rpm, and 209.69 rwtq @ 4200 rpm with only 12.41# of boost. This was done on 87 octane, timing at 8-9* btdc. and on a hot afternoon. My car has the SVO hood on it, and all the testing was done with the hood open, so NO air was being directed through the T-Bird intercooler. And still to this day running the PE computer in it, soon to be changed to the LA3 I have on the shelf.

NOT impressive numbers but, Tony Gonyan, of HP Performance, in Orange Park, Fl said "there was more there, I just had to do a few things before we could pull better numbers." Things like 93 octane fuel, advance the timing to 10-11* btdc and clean the VAM.

Since then there has been quite a bit of new mods done. A ported lower intake; gutted, rotated, and extended upper intake with a 5.0 Cobra 65mm TB, FMIC, now a ported exhaust manifold.

With our economy being the way it is and money being tight for everone, I was waiting to have all of the mods done before another dyno session.

I am also working with a guy that used to work for HP and had use of the dyno anytime he wanted. His goal was to see how much power he could make by using stock parts and modifying them. He made 29 rwhp by porting the intake. and another 30 rwhp by porting the exhaust manifold.

Same guy also had a Ranger with another 2.3 motor in it dynoing 484 rwhp and 605 rwtq. The only real differences being a MAF instead of the VAM and a T3/T4 hybrid turbo.
I hope this was able to help y'all understand a little about this setup.

Any questions I will try to answer them, and post updates as I have them.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #6 – October 05, 2009, 12:48:32 PM

Glad you found the site and registered! Well, I made some more progress on the porting, got new pics below. The overall improvement by cleaning up the bowls and re-shaping the valve guide bosses is sort of hard to get a feel for by looking at the before/after pics in this thread, but, in person, it sure is a noticeable difference.

The shiny sliver that you see in the first pic, way back by the valve seat, is actually part of the combustion chamber, shiny now, because I worked it a little bit around the valves.

Intake bowl as viewed thru one of the edge intake ports:

Same thing as viewed thru one of the middle intake ports:

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #7 – October 05, 2009, 08:14:52 PM

That is alot of grinding, it certain looks very nice, should be some good gains.

Ive heard of the exh manifolds cracking, even the E6's, if you got too thin in some areas. Those babys get HOT!

What about Jet Hot or ceramic coating inside and out?

side note; my wife grew up as a teenager in gainsville, she always wants to go back and visit.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #8 – October 06, 2009, 08:42:10 AM

Tell me about it, I much prefer porting aluminum to anything cast iron, but hopefully the power gains make it worthwhile.

I've heard that too, but then again, I've heard of iron exhaust manifolds, even non-turbo ones, eventually cracking with time. Ford's 300ci in-line six cylinder that they used in F150's and vans for years, comes to mind. When I was porting that one, truthfully, most of the heavy porting on it was in areas that had PLENTY of iron left, the thinnest areas of the manifold didnt really need any grinding anyways.

Jet Hot would probably be a nice addition, esp to help better keep the heat in the exhaust and less of it transferring to the manifold, but that's up to him to decide if its worthwhile.

Your wife probably saw Gainesville at its best when she was a teen.. it's still a nice looking town with the rolling hills and tree lined streets, but the traffic has gotten to the point of being ridiculous and the taxes are hellish, too. I'm sure she'd enjoy the visit, and if you time it right bringing her down, you can go to the Gator Nationals and see Gainesville's track at full throttle.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #9 – October 06, 2009, 12:50:03 PM

The RFE6 manifold is thicker in the crack pr0ne areas, the main one being the #3 runner, right above the collector area. I run a RFE6 on my TC that I ported fairly aggressively, and I ported the one on my sons 89 Mustang 2.3T. I've done a couple others, and cast iron versus aluminum, I'll actually prefer cast because I don't have to unclog the cutter every five minutes like I do an aluminum.
Like Sumtin Nuu, the next project is a ported head, although I'll be running larger valves.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #10 – October 06, 2009, 09:14:30 PM

They make different cutters for aluminum. Aluminum definately takes alot less work for better results.

2.3T exhaust manifold porting pics

Reply #11 – October 07, 2009, 04:33:34 PM

Quote from: jangus;293895

Like Sumtin Nuu, the next project is a ported head, although I'll be running larger valves.

Just wanted to reiterate to avoid any confusion, I ported this stuff, but the head and manifold belong to SVO Capri. This stuff is going on his ride that he detailed a couple of posts up, not mine. All of my junk has either 302 or 351 based motors in it.

I was getting tired of porting the same small block stuff over and over and wanted to try porting something different for a change, thats all.

I finished the head up and got it back to him yest, unsure of when exactly he is going to get it bolted on, but think it will be in the next week or 2. So hopefully get some feedback from him on it sometime fairly soon.