Well, I'm in the middle of rebuilding my engine (s5 turbo), and its about time to order up some templates so I can street port it. I know mazdatrix has them, but does anyone else offer templates, and whose is the best? By best I mean most high end power, (like to keep in first at autox ) also, is a dremel enough for street porting, or is something with more power needed.

 

mazdatrix templates will probably give you the best overall powerband, but maybe not the best high-end. And the "Drill-saw" from home depot is the best home porting tool on the market. It is just a bit you can use in a normal drill that has teeth on the sides. It's coated with titanium nitrate so it doesn't get hot or wear. It costs like $5. Search on home depot website for the bit under: drill saw

 

 

I used Racing Beat templates for mine. I purcased them from Mazda Trix. They worked great, lots of power. But be carefull you have to cut the templates out yourself. If you fug up cutting them out .. you fug up on the port job, and they are pricey. If you lived in my aera I would gladly lend you my templates.

 

The drill saw is NOT for hard metals, such as the irons. It works great on aluminum, but would quickly wear out on iron.

Racing beat sells porting templates as well; I'm pretty sure Mazdatrix is just distributing the Racing Beat templates though.

I would use a die grinder on the irons, and use the dremel for final clean up. But I know their are a few people who will spend hours using just a dremel.

 

What is the BEST bit to use? I dont care about how fast it works, I just want the best cut and something that won't chop stuff up, nice smooth cut.

 

Think i'll go for spending hours with a dremel. Figure slower it goes, less chance I'll screw it up.

 

Use a Carbide porting bit for your rough work, then working with a sanding drum bit.

 

You'll get fed up. Just be careful, and watch you don't let the die grinder run away on you and mare the end iron facing.

 

and thanks for the offer rspeck, but im about as far away from california as possible. (still thinking about driving down to sevenstock next year though...)

 

I used various grinding bits. A coarse round bit to open up the runners and then a cone shaped one for the actual port opening. Used the dremel for the smaller areas of the port opening and for shaping the underside of the inner port wall. (part which faces the rotor housing closest to the water jacket)

Sean is right about the vari-bits. Not only are they **** for hard metals, the diameter is too small to make a smooth surface on the housing. You'll end up chewing the hell out of the hole and it'll flow less than stock because of turbulence.

I use a very coarse rotary rasp type bit for intake manifolds. It has a 1/2" diameter head which blends nicely in the intake runners and has a curved tip for blending in cuts. I'd stay away from the vari-bits all together because of their small diameter alone.

 

How difficult is it to port yourself? I mean, would a novice (like myself) be able to take the intake off without a lot of problem and port it myself? How difficult is it actually to do the cutting/boring yourself? When you buy templates does it come with instructions as well? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Aaron

 

To port the motor requires the entire engine be dissassembled. That you didn't know this, throws huge flags up about you not being ready to port a motor.

To my knowledge, no one makes intake manifold porting templates. No one has even posted before and after dyno runs with a ported intake alone either. The only porting in my intake right now is to port match it to the block. (and did some minor smoothing in the lower runners)

 

Cutting the templates is a bitch. I had a harder time with the RB plate then I did porting the housings. Its really soft aluminium. You probally cant use the same bit for both. I bought a $25 die bit and it worked great. Clean, quick and easy to control. Use a die grinder youll be glad you did.

 

So do you port all four ports, plus exhaust ports? Or do you just port the exhaust and intermediary or side ports????