I am seriously considering ported head. I have been reading and reading, and this is the conclusion i got: I do not want to go to bigger valves and cam, so increasing the airflow will provide noticable gains in power. For those WHO HAS EXPERIENCE and/or technical knowledge please advise me with the options i have, keeping in mind reliability is also as important as the performance gains to me.

 

Here's the offering from ENDYN, from Ft. Worth, http://www.theoldone.com/components/...ead_modifi.htm .

If you get past the mistake of calling it a 1.5 Ltr motor, you'll see that they are extremely thorough about what they do. Each head is reworked to match your specific requirements.

You can read more about ENDYNs work and philosophy at http://www.theoldone.com/articles/ and http://www.theoldone.com/archive/ .

 

I haven't put a ported / polished head on my MCS yet, but I've put them on other cars and in my youth ported quite a few VW heads including ones where I upped the valve size and ones where I didn't.

I think you're leaving a worthwhile amount of power on the table by not going with larger valves and especially by not putting in a Shrick performance cam. The MINIs I've been in that have one or both of these improvements are quite smooth, idle well and are very driveable. Given the extent of the mods you list in your sig I think a fully optimized head would be ideal. You'll see improvement from the porting, but you'll see more with the bigger valves and cam. And neither the larger valves nor a performance cam should negatively impact the reliability of the engine at all. Most likely in fact the larger valves will also be stronger, which will improve the reliability.

Be that as it may there are a number of good head optimizers for MINIs. I've seen great work from Endyn (www.theoldone.com) and from CHR Racing (www.chrracingproducts.com). Both make beautiful heads that perform great. I haven't seen a Webb Motorsports head but I understand they're quite good as well.

I do recommend you put in stronger springs and retainers for the valves. That will do a LOT for reliability unless you don't intend to push the car at all or go over 7200 RPM. And if you don't intend to push the car, why bother optimizing the head?

/gary

 

CHR makes the Webb head. Of course I’m partial the workmanship of Larry Widmer at Endyn since I’ve experienced the benefits first hand but you can’t go wrong with any of the offerings available from vendors on this site. Endyn designed the oversized valves it uses and it makes sense to take advantage of all the flow enhancements available when having the head modified. Be sure to have the intake manifold port matched to the head at the same time from whomever you choose. It’s also a good idea to send the exhaust header you intend to use for matching as well. The entire flow path should be addressed to make sure there are adequate anti-reversion steps in place and no unwanted irregularities. The stock springs & retainers are just fine with the stock cam and rpm under 7500 and the best option for longevity. Stiffer springs are harder on all the valve train components and so are stratospheric rpm.