Livernois Motorsports | Cylinder Head Porting for the Serious Power Addict

Livernois Motorsports | Cylinder Head Porting for the Serious Power Addict

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It’s safe to say that we’ve all heard that an engine is essential an air pump. That statement is as true today as it was when our hot rod forbearers were installing Offenhauser Intake Manifolds on the Flat-Head V8s in their A-Model Fords. While we might have moved on a bit from a technological standpoint, the basic principles still remain. Moving more air with less resistance allows you the opportunity to make more power, and few shops understand the intricacies of increasing airflow like Livernois Motorsports in Dearborn, MI (Detroit to you and me).

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All port work is first designed in Livernois' 'flow room', where they have a variety of flow benches and instrumentation.
Livernois has been in business, first as an engineering firm, since 1949, and they have been CNC Porting cylinder heads for about twenty years (to say nothing of hand porting). When I was first getting into motorsports ported heads were sort of Unobtainium. I had no clue how to port them myself without screwing something up, and I certainly wasn’t going to let any of my half-drunk friends give it a shot. Luckily, there were professionals like Livernois out there that actually know what they are doing; and have this stuff down to a science.

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Starting with a stock casting, the Livernois team massage the ports until they receive the results they are after on the bench.

Honestly, I’m surprised every time I stop by Livernois. They port and upgrade more heads than you can imagine. Seriously, it’s incredible the volume of work that flows through there. And the variety of heads they have programs for is just as impressive. Of course there are Coyote, LT, and Hemi heads everywhere; but it’s the other stuff that stands out to me. Sure, there’s a ton of 3V engines out there but you would expect them to be getting new heads at the rate Livernois is pumping them out. I even spyed a set of non-PI 2V heads getting some work. I know, it’s crazy, someone is actually spending money on one of those engines. But Livernois has a program for them, so throwing a set in the mill and hitting ‘go’ isn’t really all that expensive. They are even working on port jobs for heads with the weird looking integrated exhaust manifolds like the Ford EcoBoost engines.

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After all the design work it's time to throw some castings on the 5-axis CNC machine do some cutting.

The Livernois port designs are perfected on their Superflow 600 and 1020 flow-benches. Then they are proven out on their engine dyno, chassis dynos (they have 4 of those), and the track. Each design goes through several iterations until Livernois’ internal performance goals are met. They have guys working on this stuff who have made the cutting and smoothing of aluminum (and I suppose iron, though I didn’t see any) heads their careers. These guys have skills that take them beyond simple tradesmen and into the realm of automotive artisans. If you’re a car geek, watching them work is better entertainment than anything you’re going to find on TV.

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Next, any deck or valve work that is needed is performed.
After porting, any deck work and/or valve lapping/cutting is performed. If the job calls for it, larger/upgraded valves are also installed along with guides (if necessary) and new seals. Livernois also has proprietarily spec’d valve springs available for many applications. While we were there they received a shipment of upgraded springs for the 2018+ Gen 3 Coyote head. These springs have a slightly larger wire diameter and altered coil spacing to sustain higher RPMs under boost without floating the valves.

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This is the result of all the design work. A freshly ported set of Livernois Gen III Coyote heads.

So what kind of performance benefits can you expect from a set of ported heads from Livernois Motorsports, and how much will they set you back? Well that all depends on your application and how aggressive you want to get. For a basic Stage One on a set of Gen III Coyote heads found on the 2018+ Mustang GTs and 5.0 F-150s you can expect to pick up significant power on a boosted engine while lightening your wallet by $1,600 dollars. For something a little newer and nastier like a Stage XXXX build on a set of 5.2L VooDoo heads you’ll be looking at.

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The exhaust ports come out spectacularly.

The big thing to keep in mind is that the more boost you’re throwing at an engine, or the more RPM you’re thinking about running, the larger the gains from port work will be. Smoothing out and increasing the airflow definitely pays dividends on the big end, which is why all the big boys at the track run ported everything. If you’re building/rebuilding an engine a set of Livernois ported heads are a small investment towards your HP goals. If you fall into that category CLICK HERE and check out what Livernois offers for your engine. You may find that those unobtanium ported heads are way more obtainable than you though.

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The Gen III Coyote heads are the pinacle of Ford's modular engine technology. Livernois just makes them that much better.

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With even just a Stage 1 port from Livernois these Coyote intake ports flow like a drain pipe.

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The exhaust ports are beautifully contoured. If you have an eye for such things, and look closely, you can see some of the subtle changes Livernois makes to optimize performance.
-SID297

Thanks to Livernois Motorsports
 
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Is the bottom picture all Ford GT heads? Those are beautiful! Great post!

Sure looks like it. They look to have a few cores on hand. Interestingly enough, they have trouble keeping 2V and 3V cores. They said most of the ones they see are coming off trucks with basically no maintenance and the cam towers are burned up.
 
Sure looks like it. They look to have a few cores on hand. Interestingly enough, they have trouble keeping 2V and 3V cores. They said most of the ones they see are coming off trucks with basically no maintenance and the cam towers are burned up.

Ya I talked to them recently about picking up a set of Ported Stage III Ford GT heads for my 03 Cobra. They said they had cores. We will see how the new build does next month and after that I may be getting these.
 
Ya I talked to them recently about picking up a set of Ported Stage III Ford GT heads for my 03 Cobra. They said they had cores. We will see how the new build does next month and after that I may be getting these.

I have a set of brand new never installed GT heads if you need them to send out.
 
I have a set of them in my build they were supposed to be the stage 3 titanium valves but Dave first sent wrong head for a cobra not gt500 then they corrected it . still paid alot of shipping lol. But the heads are making some numbers on my setup so far. !!
 
Livernois did my gt500/gt heads and 9.3/1 5.3L shortblock. Purdy little things.

I had mine taken to a stage3 port job, and my valve ports kiss each other. The runner tracts are Siamese’d by maybe a 16th to a 32nd of an inch. I would post a pic but you’ve covered it haha.

It’s impressive what the potential is on a fully ported gt500 head. On 10psi and 9.3/1 compression, my mill with stage 3 mmr grinds makes 800whp with 62’s and a mid range intake manifold (fr500c long plume) on pump gas. On a stock 4.6 8.5/1 terminator mill with stock c heads/cams and 57’s, I had 750whp on 15psi for comparison.
 
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I keep wanting to send my 3.5 heads off for a port/polish assuming there's any real gain to be had. Sidenote, that's the dirtiest I've ever seen their floor!

I posted my experience just above. It’s hard to see just what head porting does because 9/10 people do the long planning and end up changing cams and retainers and valves while the head is off. It saves money to avoid opening the heads multiple times.
 
Livernois did my gt500/gt heads and 9.3/1 5.3L shortblock. Purdy little things.

I had mine taken to a stage3 port job, and my valve ports kiss each other. The runner tracts are Siamese’d by maybe a 16th to a 32nd of an inch. I would post a pic but you’ve covered it haha.

It’s impressive what the potential is on a fully ported gt500 head. On 10psi and 9.3/1 compression, my mill with stage 3 mmr grinds makes 800whp with 62’s and a mid range intake manifold (fr500c long plume) on pump gas. On a stock 4.6 8.5/1 terminator mill with stock c heads/cams and 57’s, I had 750whp on 15psi for comparison.
How aggressive are those Stage 3 MMR cams? Ive not heard anything about those in the wild. Current front runners for me are the JDM S/S cams. 2011 GT500
 

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