After some encouragement from the forum, bad influence(CollieRover), I decided to port match the heads to the exhaust manifold, and if laziness doesn't overtake me by then, I'll match the heads to the intake manifold.
I have done this on other engines, but really didn't want to spend the time. Well, my engine is back apart for a rebuild, and I have time to fool with it.
Matching the ports is beneficial, and improves overall performance, mpg, and may even run a degree or 2 cooler.
I have seen several engines dyno tuned make an extra 18-20whp, but this also uncluded porting the cylinder bowls(around the valves), which is where most of the gains come from. And I doubt I'll do that.
Regardless, I put the exhaust manifold gaskets on the heads, centered with the bolts, and then again on the manifolds, coloring in the material to be removed with a black sharpie.
Even though the ports are close in size, their alignment is Way off, so this is definately worth doing.
I have no way to measure the results, as there was no before dyno test, and I also added a Crower cam and aftermarket fan and fan clutch and pvc mod.
I will also be doing an inline thermostat mod.
I marked everything last night and started on a head port with a worn out carbide dremel bit.
The bit worked well, but as said is worn out, so I ordered more, and they should be here before the weekend.
I have almost finished the first exhaust port, so now I am committed to do them all.
I am going to get an early model block soon and hopefully be driving this thing by warm weather.
Here are the before pictures.
More to follow next weekend after new bits get here.
And, as you can see, as far off as these ports are, this Is worth doing.

 

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And no pics
the forum sucks so bad about this

 

F it.
Picture loader here Never works.
Garbage.
Mods delete this thread, as it's useless without pics.

 

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Wtf!!!!!!
It loads a picture finally, then stops working again!
No matter how I set it up to load them.
This forum's picture loader is the worst I've seen and constantly doesn't work.
I think alot more would be contributed if it did.
This Needs to be fixed...but only gets worse with every forum update.
I'm done trying.

 

Glad to be of service! I have noticed that the engine on the highway is far more responsive, and it seems to pull much better, have not noticed any mpg increase. The engine had bad HG's on at least one side leaking out of the side so compression was bad in at least three cylinders. So some of my anecdotal evidence is probably from simply having a sealed HG.

If you have time, it's not a bad job. You'll have to use a gasket to look at yours, but there is far less material moved on the inlet side of the head. The Exhaust manifolds on mine were extremely restrictive and uneven compared to the head exhaust ports which were already much smaller than the gaskets. Based on that I was a little more cavalier with the porting because I figured what the heck could I do wrong? It was already really restrictive and I don't think anything I could have done overporting would hurt. I polished to 120 if memory serves on the exhaust side and 60 on the inlet. The TB I polished to as close to mirror as I knew how, which I didn't.

After you get it running reset your ECM adaptive settings. I eventually had some wiring issues, and had to take it in, and my mechanic, Marvin, did end up resetting the adaptive settings. It runs "tighter" after that and more efficiently. But to my knowledge that was the first time mine had ever been reset.

 

I have a Nanocom, and actually set it up for the first time this weekend(put battery in truck), so I will reset everything before first start, whenever that happens.
The exhaust manifolds....yeah. I couldn't belive how far off those were.
As for the intake to heads, there are still clearly visible marks from the old gasket, so they are really already marked.
They don't look as bad as the exhaust, but they are definately worth doing as well.
I'll try(try) to load pics when I finish. I've given up on trying to load any more today.

 

Cool! I was pretty shocked how poorly the heads matched the gaskets. As old as the engine design is you would think that they would be more precise. Whenever I see an LS Intake and how it mates to the heads I am always jealous. The lower intake gasket for these motors is a pain in the ***, and acting as the Valley Pan gasket as well seems like poor design, or not as good as the LS anyway.

 

I agree, I hate the lower intake gasket too.
I will be buying a Fel-Pro this time, as the AllMakes fit terrible. I even put rtv around each port on both sides to makes sure it sealed good. Upon removal, it had, and the amount was small enough to seal well and not bleed out...leaving a nice stained edge to port along.