I so wish I'd taken some photos of my head, during the porting and after the coatings etc.
I removed the valve guide and post in the exhaust runners. Smoothed them into nothing. The valves have undercut stems, so there is minimal flow obstruction. On the intakes, I shaped them into vanes with round faces, and tapered backs towards the valve side. (Think airplane wing shapes...) Mostly this is done by removal of material on the sides, then taper the side that goes up into the bowl are at the valve.
Removed all sharp edges like you did at the valve seat/bowl.
I did more smoothing in the combustion chambers. But tried to not remove as much material as possible. Mine are smooth with no sharp edges anywhere, and the valves are unshrouded more too. This does increase the CC size of the chamber, but starting out with 9:1 pistons, I'm not worried about ending up with too low of a static CR. (However, I've never done a compression test to see where it all ended up, but it does have plenty of tourqe at lower engine speeds, so it's not too low.)
I looked at IJ's sectioned head a while back, and tried to keep the bulk of my material removed from the exhaust side towards the head gasket side of the runner. (Except for where I removed the valve guides of course..
)
No leaks, so I must have stayed clear of them I hope.
I thermal barrier coated my combustion chambers, the valves and the exhaust runners.
The intake side is thermal dispersant coated as is the rest of the head, and coolant passages.
Looks kinda crappy actually, I applied it with foam brushes, and should have used my air brush to get a better final appearance result, but it seems to work fine. (Air brush was used to coat intake and block, and other stuff, so they turned out looking great..)
Some things to consider about coating your head.
It is sandblasted with aluminum oxide. This is sandpaper without the paper, so any grit you miss, or do not remove, will tear up any close tolerance surface on your engine in short order. There is NO way to keep this grit out of the coolant, oil and other passages in your head. The best you can do is tape up the holes, and don't spray abrasive there as much as possible.
I coated the cam saddles/caps with molydisulfied too.
(Did not coat the cams however. Waste of time.)
Moly was swabbed down the valve guide bores, but I don't reccomend this unless your machine shop does not mind running their guide reamer down them afterward to restore the proper ID for the guides. Especially if you moly coat the stems on your valves. (I did not, but left them polished smooth.) Only my valves from the cut down area are coated with thermal barrier. (Similar to your piston crown coating from Swain, and what I coated my pistons and combustion chambers with etc.)
Really should have taken some photos.
Had quite a pile of aluminum shavings when I was done.
Reccomend the following.
Guantlet style gloves.
Old sweatshirt. (To keep the chips from collecting on your arms.)
Welders cap worn under your safety face shield.
Safety shield. Full face, with ratcheting head band, flip down style. (About 15.00 of the best money you'll ever spend if you do any grinding work at all, ever.)
Can of WD40.
Ball, pineapple and point shape wide carbide cutters. (Leaves a nice golfball finish on the runners.. Not sure the perfectly smooth runners are the best way to go, so mine are the way the carbide's left them.. with slight dimples everywhere the alloy was cut.)
Wear long pants. (Chips will stick to your legs like you would not belive, and they are sharp!)
Boots that come up under your pant cuffs. (Again, get chips down in your shoes, and your going to regret it...)
I don't have any flow numbers either. Did not CC my heads.. LOL Should have, but at the time, remember saying "F-it" and moved on.. (It was one of those 3am deals, and you realize that you have been standing there, cutting away at this dang lump of metal for 12 hours or so, straight.. Time for a drink of water! If you can remember how to walk that is.. after standing there for so long..) Oh, some rubber work floor pads make working on concrete possible for those of us who are over 35years old...
