I have a pair of 461 heads that I have completly disassemble and was thinking is it worth the time to do a little home port and polishing job in the garage. Will I see any benefit of doing this for a SBC 283 w/461 heads and 2.02/1.60 valves or will this be just an over kill for the little engine. I have all the material. dremel, air compressor, 40/60/100 grit paper and polishing tools.

It's not gonna hurt. Keep it simple though. Just break the edge at the bottom of the valve job. Don't try to remove too much material. A slight radius will work fine on the small motor.

Do you have any problems with the larger valves overhanging the edge of the bore?

Take a peek here (http://community.webshots.com/photo/63829074/63829281hBNrwu) for a chamber, here (http://community.webshots.com/photo/63829074/63834135SgvBJY) for the seat area, here (http://community.webshots.com/photo/63829074/63833560giKoVY) for an intake port view, and here (http://community.webshots.com/photo/63829074/63829485EkyaGL) for a look at an exhaust port. These may give you some ideas on what to do. These are a set of smaller port Canfields for a 341" SBC, and had good flow numbers with a pretty small port volume, which is the key to a resposive motor.

Originally posted by onovakind67:
Do you have any problems with the larger valves overhanging the edge of the bore? \

NO problem at all, was runiing a 230/230 480/480 109lsa with these heads and a .041 gasket. Now that I have a smaller cam 204/214 420/442 112lsa w/.015 felpro1094 Gasket I will have a tighter quench and still have plenty of room for the heads. I cleaned the pistons off with Oven Cleaner Easy Off and a Drill wire brush with NO sign of piston to valve clearance or hitting the cylinder wall. However this motor is bored .080 over, wnated to go .125 but machine shop did not want to chance it since the block was so old. I had to change cam due to a lobe wipe and improper valve to guide clearances # 2 Intake (bending pushrods) which was cause by not checking the machine shop work. Full me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. It will never happen again, I will measure and mic everything.

These guys have a good D-Y-I reference ( ok not as good as Steve's but...)

http://www.sa-motorsports.com/diyguide.shtm

Steve

thanks for posting those pics. pictures speak a thousand words.

I picked up 3 tenths about 30 hp just by doing a bowl job and gasket match on the intake. With a set of 462s

All you need is a cheap, plastic, Black&Decker, 2,500rpm 1/4" drill and several cheap chinese stones from your local hardware store!!

JUST be sure AND use GOOD eye protection AND a good DUST MASK!!

My "eye-doctor" buddy Doc had to pull a piece of steel outta my eye the time before my last set and I don't like spitting cast-iron dust outta my head for three day's!! Darn stuff taste's terrible to boot...

Been there, done that...

pdq67

Thanks for all the Help! Is there any where I can find the flow number on these heads or can someone post them for me. I was able to find this, but it did not have 461 flow numbers:
http://users.erols.com/srweiss/tablehdc.htm#Chevy
Thanks

It`s there but only shows it at .5 lift.
Chevy '461 161/62 64 - - - - 216/137
63.43%
444.3 hp

Jim

Originally posted by pdq67:
JUST be sure AND use GOOD eye protection AND a good DUST MASK!!pdq67 I took a liitle time this week end and done the port and polishing job on the heads. Check out the picture and let me know what you think. I could not get all the way in the intake runner but I got plenty of it.

I started Friday night at the Post Auto craft Center,continue Sat morning and finish this morning with crossbuff.

PDQ67
I did not have a dust mask Friday and boy did I pay for that! Nose and sinus was fill with dust and had a headache Friday night.

Here is some before and after pictures.
http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dtl5042002/lst?.dir=/461%20heads