bridge port question
 

the other day I was at the local automotive store and there was a guy that was asking me what i drive and i told him, an fd. The guy then told me that he had a friend that had an fd with a bridge port from steve kahn. he then told me that it was ported way too much and the acatual peice of iron that makes the bridge broke off and tore up his motor. i know steve does top knotch work so i was curious anyone ever heard of this happening with any bridge ported motor?

probly tossed an apex seal that just happen to hit it in the right place to knock it off.

I've heard about it happening in race motors however they were usually something called J ports or monster ports, giant ports like that really do weaken the engine since they are cutting out quite a bit of material. all it takes is a bit of overheating to weaken them or detonation to really screw things up.

yea a bridge port is just a very drastic (read: large) port on the engine. A street port -- what most people get -- is not nearly as radical. The bridge port can introduce weak parts to the engine since the sidewalls' thickness is reduced so much. Could have been detonation, apex seal, whatever, to just strike that weak spot.

tafkamb2
 

good point tafkamb2 i didnt think about that possibility, but that would most likely be the cause i think.

Keep in mind that Steve only tuned the car, he didn't perform the modification to the engine. If too much material was removed, failure is only a matter of time. There are many discussions cautioning owners about this type of mod. Yes, you get a healthy increase in HP, but even builders will tell you that it has to be done right or not at all.

This thread is like opening pandora's box. This debate about longevity of the bridgeport has been beaten to death. If you do a bridgeport large enough this can happen. All depends on what you want out of the setup. Smaller templates are out there and have proven to hold up for years upon years. Sounds like someone ported the engine for a race car and it ended up in a street car. When you want to make more power sacrifices have to be made.

Careless Kan strikes again:uh: I don't care how good you are, if you freehand ports there will be inconsistency and a larger margin for error.

If u read up mate, Steve did not port the engine. He just tuned it

Whats up JT? rotorooter93fd talked to a gentleman who had a friend that had a motor built by Kan and the bridge failed. That is what I was referring to. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Well, im about to do a full bridge so i will let you know! Only thing ive really seen that looks bad is if you cut the iron really close to the seal, the metal can crack and you will have coolant leaking into the engine.

""had an fd with a bridge port from steve kahn""

sounds like Steve's build to me??

People make all sorts of assumptions. It it possible to port the bridge too thin, possibly causing flex then eventually breaking. However it is also possible that the bridge didnt properly align with the corner seal, eventually making it fail.


However it is most likely that it was an apex seal failure.



=Ben