Swapping in Ported Heads

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
ScarabEpic22 said:
Pitt, what year is your truck? I need a head off an 06-07, 08-09 wont work for me.

Nevermind, just looked at your profile and you have an 08. :sadcry:

I thought the head was the same from 06-09?
 

ScarabEpic22

Member
Nov 20, 2011
728
Pittdawg said:
I thought the head was the same from 06-09?

Head yes, cam reluctor no. 08-09 have a 58x cam reluctor in the exhaust cam while 02-07 have a 7x one. Thats why 06-07 heads swap easily onto an 02-05 early engine.
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
ScarabEpic22 said:
Head yes, cam reluctor no. 08-09 have a 58x cam reluctor in the exhaust cam while 02-07 have a 7x one. Thats why 06-07 heads swap easily onto an 02-05 early engine.

I was about to sell my head to a member here with an 07. Are you saying it won't just bolt up? Is it that difficult to change the reluctor?
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
Back on topic...the ported head is exactly what I wanted. No low end loss (slight increase) and noticeable mid and upper end gains. This mod really brought all the other mods together. Made the torque curve super flat but still keeps pulling hard to redline. I'm very happy.
 

ScarabEpic22

Member
Nov 20, 2011
728
Pittdawg said:
I was about to sell my head to a member here with an 07. Are you saying it won't just bolt up? Is it that difficult to change the reluctor?

It will bolt up just fine, the 02-07 PCMs just wont know WTF is going on and there will be DTCs and it wont run correctly.

Yes it is, the crank one isnt too bad but I dont even know how to do it on the I6. V8s are simple, swap the reluctor on the cam. I6 you might have to just swap the exhaust cam and VVT actuator.

Pittdawg said:
Back on topic...the ported head is exactly what I wanted. No low end loss (slight increase) and noticeable mid and upper end gains. This mod really brought all the other mods together. Made the torque curve super flat but still keeps pulling hard to redline. I'm very happy.

Glad to hear! Honestly the torque curve isnt a curve on the I6 anyway, more of a flat line. Most dyno charts show once you get above 2000rpms the tq goes to ~200-205 and stays there until 5800rpms (stock tune). Still, bet you picked up a few ponies from it! :thumbsup:
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
ScarabEpic22 said:
It will bolt up just fine, the 02-07 PCMs just wont know WTF is going on and there will be DTCs and it wont run correctly.

Yes it is, the crank one isnt too bad but I dont even know how to do it on the I6. V8s are simple, swap the reluctor on the cam. I6 you might have to just swap the exhaust cam and VVT actuator.

Did the VVT actuator change too? Is that why an 07 can't simply just swap the exhaust cam? Where is the VVT actuator, do you have a pic?
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
I was cocky with my new found power and stoplight raced a Subaru Impreza WRX on my way to work this morning and got beat :mad: Anybody have a couple thousand they want to loan me for a supercharger?
 

ScarabEpic22

Member
Nov 20, 2011
728
Pittdawg said:
Did the VVT actuator change too? Is that why an 07 can't simply just swap the exhaust cam? Where is the VVT actuator, do you have a pic?

Yes, the VVT actuator is where the cam reluctor is located (as far I can tell). Its the big thing that causes the front pass side of the engine to bulge out on the exhaust cam. Its not in your pics, the shop must have swapped your original one to the new head.
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
v7guy said:
Are we going to be seeing any dyno numbers off this?

Someday hopefully. It won't be just for the head though as I have numerous engine mods.
 

gmcman

Member
Dec 12, 2011
4,660
v7guy said:
Are we going to be seeing any dyno numbers off this?

Did the OP get a baseline dyno run before the swap? If not then the results will not be as meaningful.

Unfortunately.
 

v7guy

Member
Dec 4, 2011
298
gmcman said:
Did the OP get a baseline dyno run before the swap? If not then the results will not be as meaningful.

Unfortunately.


Yeah we'd be a bit in the dark as to the real improvement but at least we'd have something. I've seen a couple times where guys say it feels faster and then we find out later on the dyno it's actually slower. The butt-o-meter is frequently wrong.
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
v7guy said:
Yeah we'd be a bit in the dark as to the real improvement but at least we'd have something. I've seen a couple times where guys say it feels faster and then we find out later on the dyno it's actually slower. The butt-o-meter is frequently wrong.

I've poured my last few dollars into modding the Voy so I'll happily accept member donations to the "dyno" fund :wootwoot:. While there is no way to tell which mods in my sig made the most power from a dyno now I guarantee you that I have substantially more power than a stock I6 and it should make for interesting results. The difference is night and day since I had it stock.
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
Noticeable mpg improvement thus far. I used to avg. 15.8 mpgs (mostly city driving). This last tank netted me 16.8 and that was with more spirited than usual driving. It's possible my ECM is still learning and will add more fuel in the future so I'll need a bigger sample size to know if the improvement is permanent.
 

ScarabEpic22

Member
Nov 20, 2011
728
Who retuned your ECM after you installed the ported head? You're at the point you really should be running a wideband O2 and have it dialed in locally/sending datalogs to your tuner. Beyond the simple bolt-ons most people do (props! :thumbsup:), but to get the most out of this you should get the tune adjusted.
 

Pittdawg

Original poster
Member
Dec 5, 2011
538
ScarabEpic22 said:
Who retuned your ECM after you installed the ported head? You're at the point you really should be running a wideband O2 and have it dialed in locally/sending datalogs to your tuner. Beyond the simple bolt-ons most people do (props! :thumbsup:), but to get the most out of this you should get the tune adjusted.

PCMforless...they tuned for my previous mods and told me the mildly ported heads would not require a new tune that the ECM would properly adjust for the moderate increase in airflow.
 

limequat

Member
Dec 8, 2011
520
Pittdawg said:
PCMforless...they tuned for my previous mods and told me the mildly ported heads would not require a new tune that the ECM would properly adjust for the moderate increase in airflow.

I agree with this. It may have been an issue for a map based system, but this is a MAF truck.
 

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