I am the last person to tell you how to port anything but a while back one of the magazines did an article that followed a set of OEM Mopar heads through 7 different stages of being ported with flow bench testing between the steps.  There were times when eliminating certain "bumps" was actually bad for power.  I believe they said they were either losing "charge" velocity, or that sometimes causing the charge to "swirl" seemed to be good for power too.  I think that for most applications, just porting the heads and intake manifold to match each other is nearly the biggest HP gain of all.
It is one very complicated subject to be sure.

I respect each and every one of you that have opinions on this , ty for sharing

I know you know this already Dave but the number that is MOST critical it the balance between intake and exhaust.  The more efficiently the charge moves through the cylinder, the more power you make.   I don't know shit about any motors that aren't Mopar so I can't help you with any real world experience.  Back in the day Mother Mopar (then called Direct Connection) sold $15 templates that let any amatuer with enough guts to do his own at home porting with a factory blueprint.  They were very effective but overall Chrysler heads breath pretty good anyway.

Another fun fact:  Using the smaller "smog" intake valves 2.09 I think, will actually increase flow efficiency and power over the 2.18s in most cases because the charge scavenges better.   
Yes, I know this... 'In & OUT"...That's the key taught that by Joe Mondello/ n a few gal's

And to answer your question, good quality porting is very labor intensive and $2000 isn't unheard of at all.   I think I paid Fumio Fukaya $900 to do a Datsun p/u head back in the 80's but that truck would pull the wheels off the ground an inch or two with 1800 cc.

Kindof unsure where you're going with this Dave, but No, every port should not flow the same or carry the same charactaristics in almost every application I can think of. You already know this. There's a huge difference between porting and simply "hogging out" existing ports, which is exactly what most CNC operations do. My 429 D2OE's cost me a touch over $1700 to have them manally done, the D3's later, a little south of that as a favour. This is a VERY "per case, instance, brand and application" based question. I also like Ralphs VERY valid point, "We don't race flow benches here".........I'm not a porter or expert, BUT.........

A TON of additional information would be needed for any qualified porter to do his thing. First example, would be Brand. BBC's fire order is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 and given that order, I would see more attention to the distant corner intake ports, depending on manifold. I would also see more attention need on the center exhaust ports and header tuning to control the exhaust pulsing. On a BBF, 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8, a very different situation. I can see it being more of a bank to bank issue because the passenger side banks have already fired off 3 cylinders to the drivers side one, before #6 is fired off, and vice versa. Therefore, my mind, and kinda what was done to mine, would tell me that 1 and 5 needed less work on the intake side, more on exhaust, and the real focus point should be on 7-8 on any given head but also relegating those heads to specific Driver or passenger side in that extreme.

This isn't taking into account displacement, what exact heads, etc, etc.........Personally, I see "CNC porting" as more a gimmick than a real life performance improvement. Unless said, reputable, shop does it's "CNC Porting" oh VERY high quality equipment (NOT an old, used Bridgeport) based off measurements from a reputably done and proven set of manually ported heads, and knows exactly how to do this properly using Unigraphics or similar, you'll wind up doing more harm than good, no matter what the port size or flow numbers say. Fast ain't cheap and cheap ain't fast, and again, plug readings alone would help tell the real story as to what was needed an if it worked or not.

In other words, you cannot make a 900 HP 454 BBC using CNC ported peanut heads...........EXCEPT on Ebay.........

Ray

I'm in agreement with you Ray ! Let's narrow this down to a set of BBF heads., that better? I'm jus thinking jus port match, port intakes &  ex. /bowl blend /dust chambers & have customer bring in their exhaust n intake manifolds to do this correctly... not even going to valve/seat modification here. I'm trying to keep this simple for everybody to understand.

All things being equal I am of the opinion that more is not necessarily better, but more importantly everything needs to be matched to one another.

sort of like hogging out the intakes but not the exhaust....In can't go "in" if it can't get "out" so to speak.

I am a huge fan of polishing and blending on race type stuff for more reasons than I have time to post, but let me just say detonation is a limitation to be dealt with and this is one of the most effective ways to do it.

On another note, blue printing (making each cylinder exactly the same) can make or break a build...

GT

I dont follow u on (making each cylinder exactly the same) ??   U  refering to the heads ?   Also I agree with you, so port matching, polish, and blend,   Don't reconfigure the ports  correct??

you know shorty, you have forgot more than i will ever know on this subject

Haha, no Ralph...I meant that you and your POPS know alot bout this topic and that even though I've been doin this along time,technology is always changing and I'd like to learn more bout this subject   from all u guys 

Ralph ,  $250.00 for a valve job ? You mean just basic v/j  yes ? no guides, parts etc?

I don't recall ever seeing this topic before, could be  wrong...

Anyhow Most of us know the benefits of this to gain xtra horse power and it's other advantages..       My question is what do you guys think a full port & polish, port match, int./ex. ,bowl blend,dust chambers etc costs?? And how much time do you think it takes to do a good job on a set of heads??

Just curious to here feed back 

Two sources for ya:

Isky Cams @ (323)  770-0930

Clay Smith Cams @ (714)  522-3301

Set up for Chevy.   NO ENGINE!!    I got this boat from a good friend.. Make me an offer 
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Thats why u couldnt turn it over...!  Gimme a call when ur ready

Jus some pics.

I enjoyed all of your comments on this thread, they all have merit.....but Jus wanted to add that I for one will never use anything other than American components for obvious reasons, my 2 cents 

Took this boat in on trade , it is 18 foot.
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