440-1 flow numbers

71Demon528 said
When I was there today, he said he won't even waste the electricity to flow a set of unported 440-1 heads because they are so bad out of the box. He dug through old files today clear back to the 90s. I can't remember the exact numbers from the one set of unported 440-1 heads he found flow numbers on (using the same bench), but they were very low. So low that I can't even remember the numbers lol. Tim has many years experience with flow benches and engine dynos. The flow bench he bought he used for many years at our machinist's shop.

So bad out of the box? Oh man, crushing my dreams.
So this brings up more questions. Is there a specific reason or area in the port he considers them "bad" like the shape of the short turn or maybe lack of effort in the valve job? Or is it more of a max effort gives you so much more kind of thing? That is, would a non-ported 440-1 do well on an engine that was not set up as maximum effort?

71Demon528 said
Biggest takeaway, which has been relayed many times on the internet, the flow bench is another tool to use for engine building, just like an engine dyno. The data is only as useful as the person interpreting it.

From your original post, this is the main reason I was asking about unported numbers, so there was a baseline on that bench with that operator. That means more than the raw ported numbers and would have been interesting to see. I wanted to build a flow bench like pittsburghracer had to try learning a little about flow but it is not in the cards for me in the near future. For now, I really enjoy good discussions like this thread is offering.