There are plenty of cast iron street heads critical.

A fine stone finish or 60 grit

to choose from but the Vortec is our cartridge roll followed with 50 or 60 grit
best, least expensive way to get a good flapper paper finish is all that is needed.
head that is readily available from many The exhaust finish I like a little
sources; new or used. Any GM dealer, smoother; 100 or 120 cartridge roll,
car supplier, local junk yard, swap meet, then a 120 grit flapper finish. If this is a
eBay, or your buddy that just took them quicky, down and dirty job, use a round
off his car can supply yours. nose tree, egg/oval, or flame shaped
The advantage of the Vortec is high carbide cutter; this finish is OK as is. Use

GM
velocity intake ports, fast burning 64 CC a reverse taper for the short turn.
combustion chambers, very little clean-up After shaping the valve bowls with a
porting work needed, and price. carbide cutter, do a fine stone finish on

Sleeper
The most importiant area of this head the valve bowls and short side radii, very
is the throat dimension that drastically little work around the valve guide bosses
affects the velocity in both intake and is needed on the Votec head.

Cylinder exhaust runners. I always like the choice

of small valves and smaller throat
If you are getting enough money for
this job, you can reshape and taper the

Head
dimensions; 89 to 90% maximum on the guide bosses for max air flow. Always
throat dimension to the valve size. remember when doing any heads, bigger
With the installation of larger valves, is not necessarily better in most cases. Air
because of the intake runner size which does not like sharp edges or turns nor

Small
is about 170 CCs, you get into a funnel uneven surfaces on port walls and floors.
effect condition where the valve is too The sharp edges on the floor of the
big and the runner not large enough combustion chamber just above the top

Block
to supply the air needed for that larger cut angle which I prefer to be 37° to 39°
valve. This is when a person will install instead of the conventional 30° on a 45°
a 2.02 intake valve and open the throat angle primary seat. Fifty years ago using

Vortec
dimension to 90 or 91% of the valve the Kwik-Way valve grinder with stones,
size and this kills nearly all the intake I used a 33° top cut, 45° primary cut, 57°
velocity causing a very sluggish throttle under cut; then with a hand-driven Kwik-
response plus poor low-end horsepower Way 70° steel cutter I did my fourth cut
and torque. for a better bowl blend. Nobody back
Ported power A smaller valve in a 350 to 368 CI then ever did more than a 45° primary

for performance small block Chevy on the street with a

Vortec head is a 1.940 intake and 1.500
cut. If it was too wide they would narrow
or sink it with a 30° top cut.

and profit in to 1.600 maximum exhaust valve size.

I only clean up the intake and exhaust
In the late 70s they came out with
a 3 angle racing valve job. My old four
today’s world port runnners. I do not believe in gasket
matching, raising the intake and exhaust
angle stone valve job set nearly every
record in several facets of racing; quarter
ports really helps the flow; only if there mile, dirt and asphalt circle, Bonneville,
)@JOE MONDELLO is enough material on the intake and road and boat racing. Now with our 4
exhaust, manifolds or headers allows you to 7 angle fixed carbide valve seat cutters
to do so. we are really changing the name of high
The valve bowls, intake and exhaust performance valve jobs to precision wet
are the most critical because this includes flow fine tuned maximum flow dynamic
the short side radius blending. Be very valve job!
careful in these areas; remember no We have come a long way in 50
larger than 89% throat dimension. Do years through our good old American
not lay back the short side radius too research and development to come up
much because this will affect high and with the great new automatic head
low lift flow numbers dramatically. centers, diamond valve guide honing,
The most important area is the throat carbide guide reamers, ball hones,
dimension right below your last undercut bronze guide liners, powder metal and
in the valve bowl (this is the maximum alloy valve seats not to mention flow
valve bowl dimension area). I like to benches and especially our Mondello-cfm
rough in the valve bowls then do the 3 to wet flow technology introduced to the
5 angle valve job, then finally grind and industry in 1999.
blend in the final throat dimension. If On used Vortec heads the question
you do not have between .080 and .100 that comes up is, “Do I need hardened
of your 60° or 65° undercut width, you exhaust seats?” When new they are
will be significally effecting your wet flow induction hardened by heat treating. I
dynamics. feel this process is good up to about 75
The surface finish on street thousand miles. You can test them with
performance cylinder heads is really not a stone or carbide cutter and usually can

46 APR-JUN 2010 engine professional

Checking 89%
choke area.

Carbide finish on intake port.

ABOVE: Stone finish on exhaust port before cartridge rolling.

LEFT: Correct way to flapper slick ports, notice how

flapper paper is rolled on stick away from you,
forming an ice cream cone shape.

engine professional APR-JUN 2010 47

 SMALL BLOCK VORTEC
)@JOE MONDELLO

feel if they still have sufficient hardness. Chevy and there are plenty of intake RIGHT: “E” tube in use on
In most cases, I like to replace all used manifold choices out there with tooling intake port wall.
exhaust seats because of today’s unleaded available to re-drill your Vortec heads to
BELOW: Necessary correct
fuel. fit the standard 350 small block Chevy tools to be used in redoing
I am very fussy on these new thin manifolds. A lot of people have a good Vortec and similar SB cast
casting heads and prefer to use a little supply of older manifolds laying around. iron Chevy or Ford heads.
shallower seat insert .200 to .215 The final thing I want to mention on Notice the rolled flapper
paper shape green tape
maximum on these later heads. If you do new or used manifolds, especially the
is only for photo. Flapper
any Buick, Olds, or Pontiac from the 60s, cheaper priced ones made in third world paper needs to be 5 or 6
70s, or early 80s, the maximum depth countries, is to make sure you check the inches long.
seat I suggest is .200. I prefer .188 as I fit of all angles and bolt hole locations. I
have seen so may rare high-dollar BOP have seen some of these manifolds come
heads get ruined by non experienced twisted so badly it wasn’t funny. I like
machinests looking at a seat chart and Dual Plane and Dual Plane Air Gapped
putting a .240 to .250 depth seat in the manifolds along with the GM aluminum
heads. This totally destroys them and all factory manifolds for street use. If you
you have left is boat anchors. want to go racing, use an open plenum
In the Vortec heads, the intake style.
runner on the roof around the push tube Now, the valve job before final
turn wall there is a cavity just below assembly... intake side 45° primary seat
the pressed-in rocker stud. This cavity, .040 to .050 wide 39° top cut angle, 65°
believe it or not, does not affect air flow. bottom cut .080 to .100 wide, narrow
I have filled them and left them alone 65° bottom cut by using a 75° straight
and there is no difference in air flow. cutter and adjust your throat dimension
The intake bolt pattern on the Vortec to 89% of the intake valve size. On the
is different than a regular small block exhaust side I like a full radius below

48 APR-JUN 2010 engine professional

 



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engine professional APR-JUN 2010 49

 SMALL BLOCK VORTEC
)@JOE MONDELLO

the primary 45° seat 1.1 to 1.4 mm 45° than my recommended max you will not
seat width 39° top cut full radius below have good flow numbers and you will
45°. To remove any sharp edges below have low velocity after all your work
your seat and adjust your 89% throat is done. You are probably wondering
dimension, hand grind it on intake and why I haven’t mentioned anything about
exhaust by using a ½ inch diameter aluminum heads. I wanted this article to
fine tooth (24 count) regular cut round cover a great head for a reasonable price
nose tree carbide cutter on a 2 inch and made an effort to help you prepare
shank. Some machinests try to use a 90° them for great horsepower, torque, and
straight blade cutter but it digs into the performance. I will do an article on Joe Mondello has been involved in quality
throat material below the final undercut. aliminum heads later. head porting and R&D at a time when
I have designed an 86° cutter that works One more thing I need to mention Ed Iskenderian, and a few others started
well but I myself prefer hand grinding is heat coatings for iron combustion a high performance industry. Joe has
it. Always set a pair of inside dividers to chambers, valves, piston tops and skirts, been so successful that his tech manual
was given a GM part number. Joe is an
89% of your valve size outside diameter and exhaust ports. You can run ½ point
innovator and educator of the highest
and continually check as you grind your more compression, use 4° to 6° less order. When he could have sat on his
final throat size.You will have to re- ignition timing and fight detonation by laurels, Joe chose instead to start a Tech
contour and shape your short side radius. using heat coatings plus pick up more Center in Crossville, Tennessee holding
Good luck with this project. It is well power and torque.Q classes for any who desire to learn air
worth 30 to 50 horsepower over a set flow secrets that took Joe a lifetime to
of low performance smog heads. If you find out. You may contact Joe at 931-459-
want larger CC runner heads there are 2760 or email [email protected].
plenty of them available and remember,
when buying your heads make sure the
throat dimensions are not larger than
89 or 90% maximum. If they are bigger



 




 
 

 

 

 
 
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50 APR-JUN 2010 engine professional