I looked threw old threads and never really got the answer I wanted. Im thinking about getting my heads ported (pi) but was there even any noticeable gains?Also I wanted to know if it would help if I was to get cams(blower cams) would it make the pNp more noticeable?

 

not really unless you have a blower, minimal gains to be found, maybe 10hp with cams, the cams are your best bet if your staying NA and gears

 

I guess since my sig never showed up I already have most bolt ons besides longtubes and t/b. I gues i wont even bother with porting the heads just cause it seems like a waste

 

porting the heads is only half the equation. Most people see crappy gains from just a head port but if you do the heads, add a good cam and put longtubes in the mix you will have one hell of a quick car with a proper tune.

Without the headers and cams (and a better intake would be a good plan) your cork is still in place. If you uncork all 4 components you should see happy happy gain gain.

 

I heard that if you completely smooth the intake runner that you can actually lose some power because the rough cast helps mix the fuel and air? Is that right or did i just read something wrong. BTW i wont be doing the heads the machine shop thats rebuilding my motor would be. Plus cams I'm still on the fence about if you would want to chime in on one besides the mph blower cams. Just shipping them to canada was a lot more money than most of the other places

 

That's true but the other reason is a rough surface reduces friction for more flow (think of dimples on a golf ball). However, get them ported right because one false move and they'll flow like crap.

 

bassman nailed that. The little imperfections create cavities filled with air that act like ball bearings and allow the air to smoothly run right up against the walls and efficiently fill the volume of the runner it's traveling through. The details of the mechanism are complex but suffice it to say that mirror (or even just smoothly) polishing will force a boundary layer to form between a flowing volume of air and the walls of the tube, which actually shrinks the effective size of the channel the air's running through.

As for cams, I like comps xe270ah, xe268h, crower stage 2, VT stage 2 (or whoever is making them now). I use xe270's. They're mild down low with good solid tq (on my 5.5L) throughout the rev range. Up top they definitely come on HARD at about 3000rpm and carry really well to 5800rpm.

Buy a used set of comps and go nuts. If import cost is a problem work with someone stateside to buy them and ship them. Then on the customs form just say you paid 10 bucks for "machined parts". That's how I used to get really expensive rifle parts into Canada without the buyer paying the full VAT. Machined parts is a really vague and 100% truthful description of cams.