I’m still buying parts to assemble a 355-cubic-inch small block Chevy for my ’55 Chevy. My buddy was over this past weekend and told me that I should make sure to port-match the intake manifold to the heads. Is that something I should do? He says he read where that could be worth 10 horsepower or more. If that’s true, then I will certainly make the effort, but I thought I’d check that out before I do the work. Thanks

B.D.

Jeff Smith: Port matching the interface between the intake manifold and the intake port opening on the cylinder head is one of those classic mod stories that have appeared probably dozens of times in various magazines.

On the surface, this would appear to be an important part of any high performance engine build. This would seem especially important when the intake port opening is smaller than the manifold. This is even supported by flow bench testing where any obstruction or sharp edge at the port inlet results in major flow losses.

But this is one situation where the flow bench can lie to you.

I can give you a real-world example. We were testing intake manifolds at Westech for a story not long ago and one prototype manifold had a larger port exit than the intake port opening in the heads. This created a protruding ledge that was roughly 1/8-inch (0.125-inch) around the entire circumference of the port. The manifold designer was hesitant to test the manifold because he had experienced a large flow loss whenever there was a port obstruction like this. Both dyno operator Steve Brule and I offered that this was something that he didn’t have to worry about. The designer disagreed and that discussion meant we had to run the test. In this particular situation, we were using a 450-horsepower small block Chevy.

Our manifold designer buddy (whose name we will withhold to protect the innocent!), was convinced we’d see at least a 5-horsepower loss in power. Conversely, our position was that the engine wouldn’t know the difference and that the power would be the same. Or, perhaps the power might improve if this latest manifold was indeed better relative to the previous manifold with a smaller port opening. We quickly ran the test and the power curves for the two manifolds overlapped perfectly. The power was exactly the same for both manifolds with no difference in either torque or horsepower.

Here’s the explanation. If we were to plot the speed of the air travelling down an intake port, the highest speed would be in the center of the port. As the air moves closer to the port wall, the velocity begins to slow until it reaches the port wall where the speed is zero. The friction from the interface between the air and the port walls is what contributes to this effect. This is sometimes called the boundary layer effect. But you don’t have to take our word for this. We’ve included an image straight from NASA on how this works.

ASK-05-04

This NASA drawing illustrates how air velocity begins to taper off as the air gets closer to the surface of the port.

If the air is travelling very slowly at the walls of the manifold/intake port, it should be easy to see that even a 1/8-inch of ledge protruding into the port will have a minimal effect on port flow. The opposite is also true where the intake port is larger. The effect is essentially inconsequential. Would an NHRA Pro Stock or NASCAR engine builder allow this to happen? The answer is no, but for your average street engine builder, it’s an area of minimal concern.

This sounds crazy but we’ve seen big block Chevys where an oval port manifold was used on an engine with rectangle port heads and it seemed to run just fine. We’re not recommending that you do this, but in the case of an emergency, it certainly can be done.

One reason this port-matching modification continues to be popular is because the openings are easy to access. But if you’d rather maximize your time and effort, the smarter move is to spend all of your porting concern on the area within roughly ¾-inch on either side of the valve seat. That’s where a little bit of pocket porting work and radius work can have a measurable effect on power – if performed correctly. To illustrate this, we ran a test many years ago on a set of iron 1.94-/1.50-inch valve small block Chevy heads. We spent 8 hours doing pocket work on both the intake and exhaust ports just around the valve seat area. This was worth a solid 25 horsepower on a 350 horsepower engine. Not bad considering we did not increase the valve size.

So if you are going to spend some time on your cylinder heads, learn the techniques for pocket porting and spend your time there.

Keywords
Ask Away, Jeff Smith, pocket porting, port matching, porting
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Author: Jeff Smith

Jeff Smith has had a passion for cars since he began working at his grandfather's gas station at the age 10. After graduating from Iowa State University with a journalism degree in 1978, he combined his two passions: cars and writing. Smith began writing for Car Craft magazine in 1979 and became editor in 1984. In 1987, he assumed the role of editor for Hot Rod magazine before returning to his first love of writing technical stories. Since 2003, Jeff has held various positions at Car Craft (including editor), has written books on small block Chevy performance, and even cultivated an impressive collection of 1965 and 1966 Chevelles. Now he serves as a regular contributor to OnAllCylinders.