Cylinder Heads 101

Hi All ! Trying to sort out the last of details on my motor project for my 66 dart vert.

I need some advice from experienced folks with porting the #302 cast late 318 head.

Heres where I am. 1.88/1.60 valves installed, un-shrouded the valves somewhat, hard seats on the exhaust. Bowls ported, intake port gasket matched.

Looking at the intake ports - these have a narrow point where the pushrod goes thru the casting. It also looks like that area is kind of tapered on one end the port. I assume this might be to induce "swirl" action ?

My questions:

1) Should I remove as much of the pushrod pinch point as possible or, clean it up some and leave it. If I am to remove material, about how much is a safe bet ?

2) I also noticed there is fair amount of the port taken up by the casting boss for the valve cover bolt, should this be taken out as well ? I assume if I grind it out and get into the threads that a thread locked stud would solve any leakage issues.

3) Is there an effective backyard mechanic way of measuring the pushrod wall thickness while doing this ?

Thanks !

:salut: :notworth: