good place for port/polish in Baltimore (MD) area?

[rrubel]

I am having difficulties justifying paying $800 to Lingenfelter for porting/polishing my SuperRam intake setup. I'm not looking for the absolute 110% maximum I can get from the setup, and I'm also probably paying a chunk for the name.

So... does anyone have a recommendation for a speed shop in/around Baltimore that can do a decent job?

Thanks.
[RICHR]

 

[ediconu]

I am also curious about good speed shops in the baltimore / DC area. I just got a '95 LT1 and it's almost time to make it REALLY fast.

I think when I find the corvette club guys near me, they'll know who to go to for corvette work, but I haven't found them yet.

 

[sothpaw]

Is the 800 to port the intake or the heads or both?

If it's the heads--let's just say I spent a lot more than that to
have my stock heads ported, exchange. I don't know that LT1 prices are more than L98, I never looked into L98. But to me, the head shouldn't matter much, you still have to set up the machine and do the cutting.

I think with heads, you really are buying the name. It's an art. You need a good artist. You need to talk to his customers to see if they liked his art.

 

[rrubel]

Just the intake - plenum, runners, base. That's just for the labor...

Heads would probably be ported by whoever I bough them from. LPE sells their own work, Summit sells CNC-ported ones, Total Engine Airflow sells their own ported Trick Flows, and now I've been given word of a speed shop in California that sells their own ported AFRs and has a LOT of satisfied customers.

Just want someone local for the intake stuff.

[RICHR]

 

[MRANT212]

You may want to try Tonys Corvettes in Gaithersburg. He primarly works on all model Vettes and specializes in restoraions. I dont think its that far of a drive for ya!!!

 

[rrubel]

Thanks - I'll check them out. Gaithersburg is about 40 miles from here, so that's easily do-able.
[RICHR]

 

[*89x2*]

Do they still have shops that will "Extrude Hone" your intake surface?? Probably mail order but still, very effective process

 

[rrubel]

Good question. Not familiar with the process; to me, extruding is drawing out a piece of material to shape it in some fashion. Not something I can visualize being done to a completed product...
[RICHR]

 

[Eagle85C4]

If you have the time....do it yourself. Porting is not that hard to do. Take a set of stock gaskets for the intake. Place a gasket on one of the runners, carve out the excess from all the holes where the gasket hangs over the edge of the hole. Now place the gasket on its corresponding mating surface. Remove any material that shows past the gasket. Once done the 2 surfaces should now match without any obstruction....and it is ported. Do all of your cleaning around the holes and any enlarging before you cut the gasket. Same goes for the plenum and intake.
A dremal tool works great for this.

 

[prepass]

Tony's is awesome! He will probably direct you to Maryland High Performance for machining. It's about 2 blocks from his shop. Tony's is opening a new facility for c4,5 and 6. This shop is an incredible resource.

 

[rrubel]

Was given a link to Les Schmader's Porting Service, in PA. http://www.lesport.8m.com/. Called him, he seems to know what he's talking about - been doing heads and such for racers for over 30 years. He says, since I need heads anyway, if I let him do the head work he'll do the intake stuff for another $150 or so as part of a package deal. Sounds reasonable to me; anyone else heard of him?

He did have a number of negative things to say about Summit Racing; mostly that they sell older product and he's gotten fairly obviously mismatched heads (5+ years difference between the castings) from customers ordering from them.
Interesting...

[RICHR]

 

[Mad-Mic]

Rich,

porting heads and porting intakes are 2 different things. you can port the intake yourself like eagle said. i'll add a bit more. take a black magic marker around the intake and what you color meat out with a dremel. easily done.

porting heads is alot harder to do for a first timer but can be done. it's basically the same way but since i'm using my stock heads when i do this i'm gonna send them to Bob Bailey. he is a small block guru when it comes to heads on a sbc. he is local also.

call Eirehnes speed shop on furnace branch or your friend paul over at ppg i'm sure they know a good machine shop that can do it for you if you want. Eirehnes know Bob personally from racing with him. Bob had a Nova duece II all steel with a 327 running 9's shifting at 12k 15 years ago. he knows his stuff