You forgot one last word of that quote.. "enough". Anyone doing that much modification to any motor is "hotrodding" whether they realize it or not. And no.. hotrodding is not always about having more horsepower than the next guy. It's much more about creativity and maximizing what you already have while you learn along the way. The way it's always been and not everyone prefers to just drop in an LS motor in a sea of LS motors.
what time is it? it's time to build a watch... so you think...patching up a 6 cyl. is hotrodding...valve job and gaskets, that's more like maintenance... there is a mountain of 6 cyls. discarded for the same reason he is "building" this one... they spend their time and money to wind up with the same thing or less. to answer his question..."Also, anything else I should do while I'm in this deep?" put in a V8...
or.. maybe just go old school and build a sundial to get close enough to the correct time of day? And yeah, people "patching up" motors rarely mill that much material in an effort to raise compression. 2bbl conversions?.. headers?.. port dividers? uuuhhh yupppp.. he's hottrodding it.. not just "maintaining" it. If power superiority complexes, random out of context snyde remarks, and needless condescension had awards around here?.. you'd surely have a few of those too, Frank. Now, granted.. would I put that amount of effort into a 6 these days?.. no way. Have I in the past?.. hell yeah! And they were damned fun learning experiences that brought me to my current level of understanding, not to mention that sometimes car guys just make do with what we already have by building, maintaining, and incrementally upping the bar as we go along. I do it all the time to everything from 1 cylinders to 10 cylinders(no 12's yet) and it all boils down to improving on what you started out with. BUT.. he didn't ask that particular question and I surely respect that he wants to go his own way. I walk by cars with LS conversions all the time.. and so do MANY others who are also sick of cookie cutter builds(remember one guy saying.. "think I'm gonna puke if I see another LS powered Ford").. right on over to the dare to be different hotrodders running "lessor power combinations". It's all very subjective and no one person is always completely right across the board. But I surely "get it" and I too have also been a horsepower whore like some others who don't care about brand loyalty and only think with their "bang for bucked" wallets. Hotrodder's have many faces and the truest of the true usually don't begrudge others who want to be different or simply don't have the bank rolls to achieve their same level of power or success. In fact, that's how it all got started in the first place.
I'm not sure what you mean by tootsie roll sanding cartridges, etc., but I think you mean port/polish the head to improve flow, right? I'm thinking I'll do some of that too, but anything beyond knocking off casting flash, obvious high spots, and some gasket matching I should probably leave to a real machinist. I may have to skip it totally, since it's probably too expensive. I'll see what he says when I take it in for the 2v conversion. My main plan this summer is basically following the 'head-off' upgrade section in the falcon manual. Now that I'm reading it more closely, it recommends milling .075 off the head, so that seems like a nice compromise.
sorry I didn't explain better.. tootsie rolls are just a nickname for sanding cartridge rolls. Not very good quality compared to the name brand stuff but Harbor Freight has them pretty cheap. http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTAwWDUwMA==/z/h6oAAOSwGvhULB5v/$_35.JPG?set_id=8800005007 Plenty of air operated die grinders at HF too of you have a decent enough sized compressor to keep up with the air flow demand. Use the long nosed versions to gain better control and reach deeper into the work areas while still being able to see. LED glasses or hats work well for improving visibility too. The angled version with the LED isn't so bad either just be sure to oil them regularly/run an inline oiler or they don't last very long at all. Smoothing irregularities can help to some degree but if you really want to make an impact on flow, the carbide burs you will need to be double cuts(slower progress but smaller chips with less chatter/easier control and longer tool life) to effectively reach around the valve guides are going to be longer shanked. Quality is similar to the HF stuff but Ebay has good prices on carbide burrs. http://www.ebay.com/itm/TEMO-SC-5L6...437802?hash=item210a1a9fea:g:GHAAAOSwWTRWwApA Also might want to consider installing hardened exhaust seats as the induction hardening of those seats are not very deep and a valvejob needed for installing oversized valves will eat it away and eventually cause the seats to get pounded out pretty quickly if you run it often and/or very hard at all. Not sure if any of the later heads came from the factory with hardened seat inserts or not. Maybe Jeff knows for sure?.. since he's probably forgotten more about these particular motors than I ever learned. lol PS. either bronze guides or these types of liners would also be recommended. I prefer the grooved k-liners myself but any decent quality liner will help fix loose tolerances to allow better oil control. http://thumbs.ebaystatic.com/images/m/myrdU_bYmHlx2QnicuVzV6A/s-l225.jpg PS. I never took pictures back then but found a good link to help give you an overview. Bowl work under the valve(smoothed transition between bottom and/or throat cut of valve job(I always recommend 5 angles over 3), thinning guide bosses, and removal of exhaust bumps will net you about 80% or better of what's possible with those castings. Gasket matching isn't worth all that much so long as the intake manifolds outlet isn't larger than the heads inlet to cause a mismatch/abrubt edge that would cause shearing. Same on the exhaust side.. header opening should be at least slightly larger than the heads exhaust port outlet to not cause potential shearing, although it is much less critical on that side of the equation. Just be aware that if you do decide to gasket match things up.. the gaskets are not anywhre near precision sized the same for every hole stamped into it. Some ports can be off and mis-sized to one another by up to .050" or more and you need to allow wiggle room for the manifold/header install locations as well. http://fordsix.com//viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63717
