Thinking Outside the Port

D . I . Y.

Thinking

Outside

the

Port

Our Deluxe Porting Kit continues to be the choice of every DIY performance enthusiast who wants to gain a few extra horsepower by porting their own heads. Not surprisingly, it's our best-selling kit and likely you are visiting our site right now! Many of our customers constantly remind us that the contents of this kit can be used for so many more purposes than just cylinder head work. To help Illustrate some of these others uses, we've Included 10 of the more popular applications below.

1. Deburr and Polish Balancer

The Very Fine Cross Buff is an excellent tool with which to deburr and polish the inside diameter of a harmonic damper or "balancer". This process does not remove enough material to change the press fit of the damper, but it does deburr the sharp edges along the keyway, making it easier to start the damper onto the crankshaft snout.

2. Cleaning Stat Housings

The inside and outside of used thermostat housings can be difficult to clean, but a Cross Buff makes short work of corrosion on the inside and outside of 'stat housings. Use a Very Fine Cross Buff for aluminum housings or a Medium Cross Buffs for cast iron housings.
Thermostat housings can be a difficult cleaning job if the housing has been sitting in a junk yard rusting for many years or is heavily corroded after being used on an engine which received little or no cooling system maintenance. The Standard Abrasives Cross Buff (Very Fine for aluminum housings and Medium for iron housings) is the perfect tool to derust the inside and the outside of a thermostat housing.

Over a long period in service, raised edges may develop at the edges of the keyway (arrows).

The Cross Buff is a unique Standard Abrasives product designed specifically for automotive applications where "clean-up" or "honing" of small cylindrical volumes is necessary. A Very Fine Cross Buff is an excellent choice for the task shown because it only removes the sharp edge formed by the woodruff key in the crankshaft but does not enlarge the inside diameter of the damper.

3. Honing

Wheel Cylinders

Cross Buffs are useful for "honing" wheel cylinders on cars having drum brakes and for "honing" smalldiameter, disk brake caliper bores. They're, also, useful for "honing" master brake and clutch cylinders and clutch slave cylinders. For any of these tasks, power the Cross Buff with a drill motor rather than a die grinder and lubricate it with brake fluid. Use a Medium Cross Buff for cast iron Three Grades of Cross Buffs are available, but the cylinders or calipers and use a most common Grades, and Very Fine Cross Buff for the ones supplied in our cylinders or calipers made of Deluxe Porting Kit, are Very Fine (left) and Medium. aluminum.
2006 Standard Abrasives

Thinking Outside the Port

4. Elongate a Hole
How often have you had to elongate a hole in order for a bolt to go through two parts? Most of us implement this technique using a drill, however, a much easer way is with a half-tapered or, in the case of large holes, a straight cartridge roll. If the metal is hardened and the hole is fairly large, you might want to try the rotary stones.

6. Paint Removal in Tough Spots

If you're refinishing a car and you're starting that task by removing all the paint, there are probably tight spots, such as the door and trunk jambs, which are difficult to sand with a disc. The Medium Cross Buff or perhaps the Flap Wheel are great tools for paint removal in those tight spots.

7. Smoothing Out Jagged Edges from Holesaw

Anytime you use a holesaw, it will leave jagged edges. Sometimes, those holes need to have smooth edges, such as when you are installing gauges into an instrument panel. A great use for a Flap Wheel is dressing the edges of those holes. Apply the Flap Wheel at a 45 angle to the metal on the front and the back of the panel and gages will slide smoothly in place without their cases becoming scratched.
Stuff that looks good and goes together easily are the signs of a talented craftsperson. Let's say you're building an instrument panel for your hot rod. After cutting the holes for the gauges with a hole saw, use a Flap Wheel to chamfer and smooth the edges of the hole.

Have you seen this before? We bet half the people reading this web page have experienced a problem with mismatch of a panel and a hole.

Cartridge rolls and rotary stones are the tools to use. The size of the cartridge rolls or rotary stones will depend on the size of the holes.

8. Clean Up Inside Diameters

A little work with the appropriate abrasive tool and the bolt fits.

5. Deburr and De-rust Center Holes

Use a Flap Wheel to derust and deburr the center hole with which a brake drum or rotor indexes to an axle or hub. Also, use a Flap Wheel to derust the indexing surfaces on the axle or hub. Lastly, wipe a thin layer of white grease on the surface of the axle or hub which will prevent the two from sticking together.

If you fabricate race car chassis or suspension parts, cutting tube stock with a hacksaw or a cutoff wheel is probably second nature, however, both leave burrs in the I.D. and O.D. of the tube. Clean up the I.D. with a Flap Wheel then, clean up the O.D. with either a Flap Wheel, a cartridge roll in a die grinder or using a bench grinder fitted with one of our Convolute Wheels.

A little Flap Wheel work removes the rust which makes the drum stick to the axle. Note the condition of the Flap Wheel. Even when a Flap Wheel appears worn out, it still has abrasive material left.

Cut tubing with a hack saw or a cut-off wheel and you're left with something ugly like the end of this length of tubing.

The same tool easily deburrs the edges of the O.D. of the tube but neither scratches nor gouges the surrounding metal.

Use the same technique on the index hole in the brake drum or rotor.

A brief session with a Flap Wheel (in this case a half-worn, but still quite serviceable Flap Wheel) takes the burrs off the I.D. of the tube.
2006 Standard Abrasives

Thinking Outside the Port

9. Remove Sharp Edges

In many cases, once you drill a hole through metal, a sharp burr is left behind on both sides of the hole. A light touch with a Flap Wheel will remove any sharp edges.
Flap Wheels and Cross Buffs both use the same mandrel assembly included in the Porting Kit. Flap Wheels screw directly into the mandrel. Cross Buffs attach to a secondary, socket-headed stud which screws into the mandrel. To remove burrs around holes drilled in sheet metal, briefly touch a Flap Wheel to the surface surrounding the hold. Presto! No burrs.

10. Removing Rust and Contamination to Inside Diameters

Tube stock which has been stored for an extended period will have rust and contamination on its inside diameter which interferes with the welding process. A Medium Cross Buff is an excellent product for cleaning those inside and outside diameters prior to welding.

The inside diameter of a length of tube stock which was stored for a long time might be rusty, making it difficult to weld.

All of the products listed including rotary stones, Cross Buffs, cartridge rolls and Flap Wheels are included in the Standard Abrasives Motor Sports Division Deluxe Porting Kit but are useful for many other tasks. Whether you are an automotive DIY, doing weekend projects on your hot rod, a professional service technician, working in an independent garage, or a skilled craftsperson, working in a racecar chassis fabrication business, you'll find all of the abrasive products in a porting kit very useful for many tasks outside of head porting.

A medium Cross Buff makes short work of that rust.

Copyright 2006 Standard Abrasives - All rights reserved - Any unauthorized copying or distribution forbidden by law.

The same tool easily deburrs and derusts the O.D. of the tube near the area to be welded.

Same tube, cleaned-up and ready to weld.

www.sa-motorsports.com Questions? E-mail us at tech@sa-motorsports.com

2006 Standard Abrasives