OK we have some progress to report. I picked up my one set of heads and intakes today. I'm trying to decide how I want my other set reworked for forced induction but that's down the road if at all. There is a long list of things that were done to the whole set of parts here. A LOT of material was removed in the porting process on both the intake and exhaust side. The chamber area was also modified. The valves are stock diameter with a 3 angle cut, as the stock ports are so restrictive that enlarging the valves really won't improve anything in my opinion. The incoming airflow was designed by some of the smartest engineers in the world with the stock size valves so changing how the AF mixture enters the cylinders is a mistake unless you are running forced induction.
The valve clearances are perfect, everything is super clean and the flow has been improved substantially. I want to drive this engine a lot so I'm confident that it will remain efficient in this configuration/design. All the intake mating surfaces were port matched and the insides themselves are completely clean and free of any carbon. It's going to be great peace of mind to have this engine clean as new inside and out.
And a couple more pictures of the work done to the intake manifolds. Yes I'll be coating the manifolds again with red. This time I'll do both of them =] Time to assemble!
