I'll provide a write-up and some photos as I get through porting the other cylinders on the head that Ray did for me. Tentatively I plan to start on the next week - but I've first got to finish pulling some GS1000G transmission and secondary-drive parts for jmlcolorado, and also finish cleaning up the jury-rigged repairs to crash damage from my first race round.
I think there's some principles to respect here:
- Horses for courses: street, drag, roadrace? Know what you're looking for beforehand. I'm my case I was looking for an engine with broad, rider-friendly power in midrange and top-end. This is probably appropriate for a street bike, which I believe your is Shawn, right?
- Saving money isn't worth it, IMO: I can't see where DIY porting makes sense if you're just looking for more power. More bang for buck from having a pro do it. It makes sense when you're looking to build skills and knowledge. I think Shawn, since you're asking, and the first questions aren't about money, that it may be worth it to you for the experience.
- Everybody starts somewhere: ignorant, inexperienced and equipment-less is where I was in February. I'm a bit better than that now.
- Do your research: porting is scary - you're taking a grinder to perfectly good parts and potentially ruining them. I think you want to have an idea what you're doing (again, know what you're looking for) before you tackle it. Porting seems to attract more disagreement than any other hot-rodding technique. I started with two books: "Superbike Preparation" by Jewel Hendriks (out of print, but available used through Amazon, and strangely, at my local library) and "Sportbike Performance Handbook" by Kevin Cameron. Both will give you an idea of what's involved, but the Hendriks is good for the hands-on process. Neither will tell you "do this to make a fast Suzuki GS". Be wary of car info - car intake seem to be manufactured to a much, much lower state of tune, and car stuff reports gains to be made by "hogging things out".
- It's your stuff: do what you want with it. It's a shame to ruin parts or make things worse, but old, commonly available bikes free you to try things you couldn't afford to do on rare or expensive ones.
That's all the advice I can currently provide - I should know more soon - hopefully before the family vacation that then leads into race round 2.
I've currently got no means, other than a kitchen sink sprayer, of measuring performance compared of one port to another. I may rig a
manometer/shop-vac for measuring pressure, but I'll have no way of measuring CFM. Nearest flow-bench is a car guy an hour and a half away. If I keep at this, I may look at some of the
DIY flow-bench equipment that's available. In the mean time, I'm not going to worry about it.
- Richard
PS. Ray's right, I'm "not a YAHOO with a hogging bit". I'm a
hoser 