Yeap I had a feeling I would be delaying things a little more. I went and talked to my buddies racing engine mechanic who has a full shop and a flow bench. He is very interested in porting my heads and giving my valves some tlc as well. He knew all about it and has a friend who has been working for TRD since the Ivan Stewerts 1UZ powered baja truck (his last Toyota factory truck). So next month he said he should have some time to tune mine. I'm preparing for the possibility of stepping up to some new injectors and replacing some exhaust valves.

I hope Santa drops a fat bag of greenbacks down my chimney this year.

So here is what one of the heads looks like. I am pretty happy with the shape that it is in. I was afraid there would be more carbon in the combustion chamber because of the large amount of buildup on the intake manifolds. The head gaskets were also in very good condition. They were built very well and showed no signs of leakage or giving out in any way.

http://fourwheelperformance.com/phorum/fwf_head.jpg

I'm still kinda shocked at how clean things are and how good the valves look. They really did a great job in the design. I'll be meeting with the engine builder tomorrow morning so we'll get to hear what he thinks :) .

So the headwork has begun. My builder and I discussed what I have in mind in terms of how I want my power curve which is mostly top end revvin :lol:. We talked about allll sorts of things that can be done and decided to go with a full port/polish job (polishing where it's needed), new stainless valves, port matching throughout the whole engine and some other top secret stuff, **cough TRD cough** . I also brought up the subject of fuel delivery. I have come to the conclusion that the stock injectors are worth 350hp before they start coming up short which is probably right around what we expect to get from this engine. I have the intentions of keeping the stock injector size so the engine won't drain my fuel tank so fast when going on a trip. But if I need bigger ones then so be it. He did mention a guy in town that specialized in engine management computers of all kinds that really knows what he's doing so I might have to have a talk with him. I don't plan on buying an EMS but if I get one at cost and I get some help from a pro with the tuning then I'm going to take on some more work to pay for it, no doubt.

I really didn't plan on spending this kind of money and it's hard to draw the line and stick to it when you have people going out of their way to offer this kind of help. I'm just very lucky to know the right people. The engine magician would be available to do work for others if they would want to send their parts in. He's a real affordable, down to earth hard worker who has a lifetime of engine tuning experience behind him. I've already met with two gentlemen who want head work done on their engines so when mine is up and running theirs will be next. Then I can give some figures on how much he will typically charge for this type of engine. He already warned me that just the machine work alone is an easy two days labor and I was expecting that because of the abundance of valves. When I changed out my valve seals it seemed like it took forever because of the monotonous work.

I'll definitely have some nice pictures of his work and when all this work is done I'll grab a digital camera and have all sorts of video for people to check out.

Here is all I have right now <_<

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/.../fwf_block.jpg

OK we have some progress to report. I picked up my one set of heads and intakes today. I'm trying to decide how I want my other set reworked for forced induction but that's down the road if at all. There is a long list of things that were done to the whole set of parts here. A LOT of material was removed in the porting process on both the intake and exhaust side. The chamber area was also modified. The valves are stock diameter with a 3 angle cut, as the stock ports are so restrictive that enlarging the valves really won't improve anything in my opinion. The incoming airflow was designed by some of the smartest engineers in the world with the stock size valves so changing how the AF mixture enters the cylinders is a mistake unless you are running forced induction.

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/...fwf_port05.jpg

The valve clearances are perfect, everything is super clean and the flow has been improved substantially. I want to drive this engine a lot so I'm confident that it will remain efficient in this configuration/design. All the intake mating surfaces were port matched and the insides themselves are completely clean and free of any carbon. It's going to be great peace of mind to have this engine clean as new inside and out.

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/...fwf_port04.jpg

And a couple more pictures of the work done to the intake manifolds. Yes I'll be coating the manifolds again with red. This time I'll do both of them =] Time to assemble!

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/...fwf_port02.jpg

http://www.fourwheelperformance.com/...fwf_port03.jpg