Nothing to apologize for, but thanks for posting it back up. Your engine looks awesome!
I'm pretty sure no amount of porting on an E head will match what you can get from mine.At least 10 guys have hit 350 with the old castings and the new ones are even better.My Stef's pan came yesterday and if it was for a less visually appealing engine I'd hate to put it down on the bottom where no one would see it.
As I get closer to the end, I am struggling with the idea of sticking with the Edelbrocks and having SD Performance CNC them, or trying to sell them while they are still new and buy a pair of Bob's new raised port heads. I THINK they will still have normal valve spacing/angles to use the same piston design and valve reliefs.....with the only thing required to run a standard 409 intake being a set of intake spacers. That was the plan last I heard anyway. The more I look at the port designs and runner entry the more I see how much better a raised port must be even if the flow numbers were the same.
I will most likely just stick with the current plan for the simple fact of keeping this thing on course and actually completing it instead of changing and it taking even more time and money to get running.
I've been told that the valves are off a little from GM heads. A customer of mine said his builder spent a lot of time lining up rockers and stuff. I think they would be close enough. Might be a good idea to use a valve cutter that is a bit larger than the one in your new heads. I got some cutters from a tool shop. The carbide ones were expensive but last longer. The tool steel ones can be resharpened. What size are the stems on your cutter?