that was some pretty neat stuff, very interesting, i didnt know that from the factory the heads where rough and didnt get as good of flow as they should. so i might get the 4 bbl heads port and polished just a little bit though.
Tip: You can polish exhaust ports to a mirror finish if you so choose. However, intake ports should always be somewhat rough or textured to keep fuel from separating from the incoming air and liquifying or puddling on the port floor/walls. Bad thing! (This applies mainly to carburation! Some modern FI systems don't mix fuel into the air until near the back of the intake valve...)
if i port and polished the 4 bbl heads how much of a difference would it make and to what size should i go to?
If you are talking about a 351C then unless you are going to run that engine above 8000 rpm you won't need to do anything to those ports.
Port the exhaust sides, leave the intake sides alone, they're big enough already. The exhaust is the side all Ford pushrod V8's need attention to except for the "FE" family.
Don't touch the intakes... The exhaust just needs blended. If you use 4v heads, don't touch the exhaust floor. Just blend the roof and sides.
well i may not mess with any of it. that article said that factory heads had lots of imperfections. thats the only reason i wanted to port and polish them
Cleveland heads are a different beast. Often they are better left alone unless you have the motor to support them. And then if you decide to port/polish them, do your homework or better yet have someone do them professionally. They are good as a bolt on without a lot of work done to them for most street strip engines.
Ditto, that's all I'd do with them. The thing to do with em back when the Prostock guys were running them was to section the heads and install port plates, effectively raising the exhaust roof.
