Iron Dove-A Head exhaust valve guide...

Taking a swing at porting my first 385 series head. Trying to not hit water ( head is still useable and would like to keep it that way) but I feel there might be some more flow to be had by reshaping the bottom of the exhaust bowl/guide area.. So far I've just taken the boss down flush with casting and radiused the transition to the roof of the port to help make the turn but I'm wondering how thick the castings generally are In that area.. I've seen iron CJ heads welded in this area and I'm wondering if the dove-a is just as thin there? Thanks for any insight you guys can give on the subject. I'm stuck around 173 cfm at .600-.800 lift on my brothers sf600 flow bench

bluef100fe wrote:Taking a swing at porting my first 385 series head. Trying to not hit water ( head is still useable and would like to keep it that way) but I feel there might be some more flow to be had by reshaping the bottom of the exhaust bowl/guide area.. So far I've just taken the boss down flush with casting and radiused the transition to the roof of the port to help make the turn but I'm wondering how thick the castings generally are In that area.. I've seen iron CJ heads welded in this area and I'm wondering if the dove-a is just as thin there? Thanks for any insight you guys can give on the subject. I'm stuck around 173 cfm at .600-.800 lift on my brothers sf600 flow bench

It will keep on marginally increasing flow until you hit water. How much of a gambler do you want to be...? Make the port wider until you break through the bottom of that one header bolt hole.

Work on the intake side and cam the exhaust appropriately.

Thanks Randy,

I didn't quite break through the wall where the header bolt ends. I did take the bulge out of that wall. Somebody worked on this head some before I got it. I think the hard exhaust seat kinda screwed up the short turn also.. The port doesn't sound bad on the bench but doesn't sound great either. I will work that wall a little more and see what happens. Kyle said I have a decent intake port with good mid lift flow and maxing out around 336 cfm at 0.700. I'm not sure where a max effort dove-a head without weld/filler should land? Thanks again for the tips.