History of the ported VW head? Styles that have come and went....

[Jim Ratto]

years ago I posted a similar topic on the other forum, but I bet we can get into in depth here as well.

I'm always a sucker for vintage performance methods.

What different head porting styles have come and gone over the years? In the early days, prior to any of the aftermarket VW heads, which were some of the most popular trends in cylinder head modification? Today everybody has a stiffy over the CNC Wedgeport. In the late 60's and early 70's, I know cars like the Iguana were running a "square" intake port. There has been much discussion over the Lonnie Reed "wedge port", and now we can see the old Gene and Gary Berg heads that were on Berglar, and were originally on a roundy round car (weren't these heads made in a day?). Enter the 1980's and we get the Super Flow, and the Street Eliminator and now the 044.

Why do you think trends have changed? If those A/MC and B/MC cars could go so fast for their cc, which "magic" head configurations did they use? The super fast smallish cc street cars? Let's open this one up and get some good gabbing going.

[SOB/RFH]

 This topic will be even better if we can trace the history of who was teaching who when it comes to porting. Fumio Fukajjo was teached by the guy who started Racing Beat (wankel motor builder) and what about Gene Berg and Dean Lowrey....did not one weld the ports and the other one used Devcon F but the configuration was rather the same........I wish guys like Jeff Denhem and Dave Kawell could shed some light on this..........Bill Clarksson and Dirty Dave Venderberke as well as Steve Timms did there own porting and must have made some impact as they was fast but not in the business of selling heads at the time......Lonnie Reed and the head shop did a major step in design with the wedge ports and I always thought that this is what killed the square port heads. Bill Mitchel is not to be forgotten in this topic. I like to hear this story as well as how the desing changed over the years.

[Jim Ratto]

This topic will be even better if we can trace the history of who was teaching who when it comes to porting. Fumio Fukajjo was teached by the guy who started Racing Beat (wankel motor builder) and what about Gene Berg and Dean Lowrey....did not one weld the ports and the other one used Devcon F but the configuration was rather the same........I wish guys like Jeff Denhem and Dave Kawell could shed some light on this..........Bill Clarksson and Dirty Dave Venderberke as well as Steve Timms did there own porting and must have made some impact as they was fast but not in the business of selling heads at the time......Lonnie Reed and the head shop did a major step in design with the wedge ports and I always thought that this is what killed the square port heads. Bill Mitchel is not to be forgotten in this topic. I like to hear this story as well as how the desing changed over the years.

good point, man. Who welded the first set? Who made the first "oval ports" (like Gary Berg heads in the Hot VWs article elsewhere)? Don Ruckman's "Sonic Muffin" ran Berg square port heads. What about Underdog 1? What did F.A.T. heads look like? What heads did Sarge have on his bad ass 1835? Yes, FF heads....some stories? Deano heads....of course...where did he learn his magic?

[ESH]

...Fumio Fukajjo was teached by the guy who started Racing Beat (wankel motor builder)...

There's a few Japanese guys in the history of this hobby that did stuff over in the States mainly between the mid 60's and mid 80's I think of which not too much is now known?

[Sarge]

The Underdog ran square-port heads back in the day that were done by Ron Fleming.  Then, there were the angle-port heads that Darrell Vittone and Fumio came up with...the angle was at the exhaust port and was a 45 degree bend rather then a 90 degree as in a normal head (wish I had a picture...I tried calling Vittone, but he said they only had this set up for a very short period and had no photos).  The next step was welding and I'd like to think it was DV and Fumio who came up with this but I'm not too sure.  When I built my sandrail in 1974, Darrell introduced me to Fumio and I ordered two new Type III bare heads through the parts dept at the dealership where I was working at the time.  I gave these to Fumio and he did his magic...welded, large intake ports and 40X35.5 valves.  These went on a 78.4X92 engine with an Engle 125 and made 155hp @5500 rpm on DV's dyno.  I wish to this day I'd never let the car go with those heads.  The best part was being charged $275.00 for the weld/port job(a fortune back then  ).  Those were the days...

[.]

Sarge, those Vittone/Fukaya angle port heads sold for $1,500.00 on the Samba a few years ago.
I missed them buy just a few minutes !
 

[Jim Ratto]

somewhere I have an old Hot VWs article about the angle flow heads. Pretty innovative.

Also, Autocraft, in the 70's or 80's made those midget race heads that were a VW rocker chamber and valve-cover rail that was screwed to a brand new aftermarket casting. They were wild to say the least. The intake ports were HUGE. I think Autocraft offered a less radical VW based head too, welded up and had intake manifold studs moved out probably 3/4" each way, and a huge rectangular intake port. A friend of mine went an easy 12.00's with these heads on his street 2332 in a street car. Wild stuff.

Now what about those strange Berg "split port" IDA manifolds in the old catalogs.....WTF were those for?

Thanks again Sarge for the wisdom from the past....you da man!
 

[lawrence]

When was the mini d port introduced? A great head for street motors that need port velocity for bottom end torque. Nice small ports which, I assume, do not even require welding on a stock dual port head. I got my L5 heads from DRD and I think that Darren used to work for Steve and Greg Tims

I always thought it would be cool to get a set of heads from Fumio because he was around when everything was booming.

[Sarge]

I always thought it would be cool to get a set of heads from Fumio because he was around when everything was booming.

It's not too late....(951) 784-1251   

[lawrence]

Yeah, I knew he is still around. Some day...

[Matt H]

I am amazed at what a set of unwleded Tims heads can do. There have been some fast cars with those over the years.

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

I am amazed at what a set of unwleded Tims heads can do. There have been some fast cars with those over the years.

Here are two Of Steve Tims Heads Non Welded and Welded  I had Steve do a set of Welded heads for me over 20 years ago when he was in Bell  Steves Heads have always Made Good H.P.

[louisb]

The bottom ones are his signature series heads. They are what he recommended to me when I told them I wanted to run an 86c or fk-45.

Just to clear something up, now there are angle flows which are cast with angled exhaust ports. These are different than the ones Sarge is talking about right? Who came up with the idea of using the crossworth style port?

--louis

[deano]

As I recall, Joe Vittone sponsored two Japanese guys to come to the States and work for him as cylinder head porters. The first one was Takayuki Oku, who went on to open Race Beat and do rotary engines. The other was of course, Fumio Fukaya. (I remember going to Bakersfield March Meet one year with Greg Aronson and Jim Holmes, and we went to dinner with Vittone, Bently and Fumio, and I sat next to Fumio.... He didn't speak a word of English, but he always would nod and smile a lot)..

Those angle-port heads Fumio did for the A/MC car made about 8hp more, along with going to the Engle VF6 cam. But when they put that engine (82x89) into the car, it went slower.... Heads came off, and back to a more traditional port design.

Don't forget the cast iron combusion chambers heads as well. Both Gene Berg, and Dick Nuss/Bill Duncan ran these way back when. EMS still ran a steel combusion chamber in their more recent Super Street car, using a Pauter casting. They swore by them to retain a valve job for many races.

Don Pauter also worked with an angle-port head, using steel tubes pressed into the exhaust ports as flanged-stubs (similar to T-4). They ran them on their sand dragster back in the mid-seventies.

[axam48ida]

I had some heads done in the seventies and eighties that were Autocraft stage 1,2,3,4 and those
wicked billet 3 piece heads.....stage 5....the early heads had a D shape and later as they welded them more the
stage three had a real large "D" to the stage 4 having more of a square port....and the Fives were just huge oval shape
then after that was the pro series "910".....I still have a couple sets of those early ones, but we cut them
so much there is no first fin on them.
I have a set of the first street eliminators that are black coated from CB that Kawell did and they are
definatley nice! again  we cut them so much the first fin is barely hanging on.
I would like to get a set of Fumio heads just to check out and try ..............

[deano]

Rimco had a "special" plunge cut that Kawell usually asked for. It was later called the "Kawell Cut" that bored the combustion chambers down to the edge of the spark plugs..... You do the math.

[j-f]

There are also european made heads in the 60's.
Ritter for example designed and build performance heads. Combustion chambers were re-designed and fly cut.
The most well know were Okrasa.

[Frank LUX]

Sarge, those Vittone/Fukaya angle port heads sold for $1,500.00 on the Samba a few years ago.
I missed them buy just a few minutes !
 

Here is a Picture of these Special FF Heads...

Frank

[Sarge]

Nice job, Frank!  We used to dune with a guy named Freddy many years ago that ran those heads...always drew a crowd at the hill.

[Frank LUX]

Nice job, Frank!  We used to dune with a guy named Freddy many years ago that ran those heads...always drew a crowd at the hill.

You're Welcome Sarge...

Frank

[Jim Ratto]

who knows about the Porsche-Salzburg modded VW heads from the 70's for rally use?

[Tony M]

back in the day circa 1974 - i has a 69mm roller with 88mm ks p&c's - R&R did the heads - large round port, shaved guides with large valves and a single 48 IDA - motor was a screemer - pulled to no ends - R&R was in a shop in sears point - very nice heads for the time

[Rune]

who knows about the Porsche-Salzburg modded VW heads from the 70's for rally use?

Did'nt they run modifyed Porsche heads on theyr rally cross cars? Or was that a bit later. They had some overhead cammed turbo beasts in the early 80s...

[Jim Ratto]

who knows about the Porsche-Salzburg modded VW heads from the 70's for rally use?

Did'nt they run modifyed Porsche heads on theyr rally cross cars? Or was that a bit later. They had some overhead cammed turbo beasts in the early 80s...

somewhere online I saw some pics of the modded VW heads that were on the Salzburg cars....looked kind of similar to the Lonnie Reed wedge port actually, but larger ports.

[axam48ida]

back in the day circa 1974 - i has a 69mm roller with 88mm ks p&c's - R&R did the heads - large round port, shaved guides with large valves and a single 48 IDA - motor was a screemer - pulled to no ends - R&R was in a shop in sears point - very nice heads for the time

I remember the R&R gang...Dave Bonbright is still in sonoma.....engine masters!
Mr. McKenzie has the old chopped and channel R&R bug....

[Jim M]

Is Fumio still in buisness?

[Sarge]

Is Fumio still in buisness?

Fumio Fukaya Enterprises
4000 S Alamo St.
Riverside, Ca 92501
909 784-1251

You better hook up quick though.... he has arthritis in his hands pretty bad last I heard.

[ESH]

I tried to buy some FF heads a while back but the guy didn't want to deal out of State (is it very difficult to get parts from the Mid-West to California?  ). I was planning on paying the asking but they were still up for sale at a reduced price over a month later but whatever I would like a to have a pair at some point, to me his heads are way up there with the best of the old school. Not quite the same but no longer available I have some Pauter B's which may yet go back on an engine at some point. They were swapped out of my engine but I still have a thing about running them again.

[Jim Ratto]

I had some heads done in the seventies and eighties that were Autocraft stage 1,2,3,4 and those
wicked billet 3 piece heads.....stage 5....the early heads had a D shape and later as they welded them more the
stage three had a real large "D" to the stage 4 having more of a square port....and the Fives were just huge oval shape
then after that was the pro series "910".....I still have a couple sets of those early ones, but we cut them
so much there is no first fin on them.
I have a set of the first street eliminators that are black coated from CB that Kawell did and they are
definatley nice! again  we cut them so much the first fin is barely hanging on.
I would like to get a set of Fumio heads just to check out and try ..............

It was the Stage 5 Autocrafts that I remember from the mid 1980's... the "composite" heads. A friend of mine, simply known as "Big Frank" had a set of Stage 3 or 4 A.C.'s in his garage that were used on his little neumann Draeger roundy round car, or WERE going to be used. I actually traded Big Frank my Super Flows with longer valves, etc for a set of those black Street Eliminator "SCS" heads from the 1980's... still wonder what ever happened to those "black heads". They actually didn't run that hard.

[Rocket Ron]

what about the scat split port heads, one head per cylinder

seemed to make good power, one of the early 90's brit racers had them on his car but cant remember which one