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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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

I love mine, car has very slight drivability trade offs for 8000rpm potential. Cold start blip gas, float idle 10 seconds or so. Keep about 2500rpm when long haul cruising. Blip throttle if idling 30 seconds. Otherwise it drives fine at operating temps over 100° coolant temp with oil pressure in the 50psi or lower range.

Car makes 800-815whp from 6250-7500 on pump gas, stock ecu and 10psi with 700wtq at 4750. Makes 300wtq by 2500 (feels like a stock coyote until 2500). Over 400wtq at 3-3500 depending how much boost it’s getting. If I brake boost, it spools up 10psi at 3000-3500 and pulls real good. My 40-120 roll, I’ll brake boost for 5psi at 3500rpm. 90mph grab 3rd, let out at about 8k/125mph. Combo in sig but if it doesn’t appear, here’s a quick list.

•9.3/1 comp
•5.3 bb stroker
•stage 3 gt500 head with stage 3 mmr cam
•fr500c intake
•62/65 t4 turbos
•t56 stock ecu sct xcal2
•McLeod street twin disc.

Easy driving I can hit 20mph on a tank mostly highway driven or about 12-15 mostly city. Stop and go traffic it drinks gas though, maybe 5-10mpg in stop/go crap. I can watch the needle move in just 2-3 blocks of heavy traffic.
 
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Great write-up and lots of good info. Livernois is a quality shop, for sure. Nice to see their operation opened for us to see, and some of their quality workmanship highlighted.
 
I love mine, car has very slight drivability trade offs for 8000rpm potential. Cold start blip gas, float idle 10 seconds or so. Keep about 2500rpm when long haul cruising. Blip throttle if idling 30 seconds. Otherwise it drives fine at operating temps over 100° coolant temp with oil pressure in the 50psi or lower range.

Car makes 800-815whp from 6250-7500 on pump gas, stock ecu and 10psi with 700wtq at 4750. Makes 300wtq by 2500 (feels like a stock coyote until 2500). Over 400wtq at 3-3500 depending how much boost it’s getting. If I brake boost, it spools up 10psi at 3000-3500 and pulls real good. My 40-120 roll, I’ll brake boost for 5psi at 3500rpm. 90mph grab 3rd, let out at about 8k/125mph. Combo in sig but if it doesn’t appear, here’s a quick list.

•9.3/1 comp
•5.3 bb stroker
•stage 3 gt500 head with stage 3 mmr cam
•fr500c intake
•62/65 t4 turbos
•t56 stock ecu sct xcal2
•McLeod street twin disc.

Easy driving I can hit 20mph on a tank mostly highway driven or about 12-15 mostly city. Stop and go traffic it drinks gas though, maybe 5-10mpg in stop/go crap. I can watch the needle move in just 2-3 blocks of heavy traffic.

Have pics?
 
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Livernois did the 5.3 BB stroker with coated diamond pistons, carillo rods and their custom crank. It’s an aluminum fr500c cammer 5.3 block and intake manifold.
 
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Thanks, in the future I’m gonna do junk yard f150 coyotes and boost. Put the future money in real estate, whiskey, women or guns.

Livernois did amazing but I’m now a broke bloke haha.

I’m half serious, I definitely will go with Livernois again though. I couldn’t be happier with their work. I love the mmr cams too. I got the fr500c direct from Multimatic on an eBay nos sale.

Ive been very hard on this combo and all I’ve lost so far in 5000 miles is timing components. It’s mainly my broke butt not getting a stand alone Holley dominator ecu to have safety kills in.
 
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I’d love to see that 7.3 in some rat rod and restomod builds.

Going forward, pulling 7.3’s from wrecked pickups will probably be the go to vs coyote f150’s
 
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Livernois was phenomenal to work with from A-Z and didn’t have a penny of unexpected costs throughout my entire build. Everything they delivered was quality and worth every cent. @Livernois Motorsports, thank you for the excellent machine work and assembly.

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Here’s what it put down without any attempt to load up boost before the pull. This is 91octane (premium up here) and 10psi. Very little if any correction factor. We’ve sense found more low end power, and have been spinning to 7500+. This is an old pic from about 2015/16. It’s gone on to make 1208 on 30psi and a rich/safe tune. The stock computer is holding it back everywhere.

I would and have recommended Livernois to everyone. They are exceptional.
 
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mmmmmmmmmm, car porn. Me likey. If they were closer to me in Phoenix, Id certainly have a stage 1 port in mind
If you are going for a Stage 1 port job, If you put a dummy valve stem in the guide and use a roto-tool air drive grinder or an electric long shaft, you can get pretty impressive results. I learned porting heads from the Roush Yates engine performance book and my Father who was a serious engine builder. We even had the Burretes for ccing the domes for consistency. Port/ gasket matching and runner smoothing yield great results. Decking the head 0.30 will raise comp ratio and assure head gasket reliability. OEM parts are the best in most cases (gaskets ect.) Just my.02, GL, oB
 

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