It ran good like that so anything will be an improvement, cleaned them a little today, new pics.[ATTACH=CONFIG]514292[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]514293[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]514294[/ATTACH]

I can't tell if the rust is coming from the port or reversion from the exhaust or the exhaust manifolds are done! If your exhaust are good, I'am willing to bet; if you pressure test those heads you will find a hole in the exhaust port or under the exhaust seat. I have also seen holes appear in the intake runner, on special occasions. I have a pair of Merlin 265 oval cast irons. Put new seats in them with valves and you wouldn't have to worry about holes after you spend a ton of $ to fix what you have. Make me a reasonable offer, and you can have them.

So far I have concluded reversion is the problem.The manifolds are rusted inside and I can see signs of water coming back in through riser,exhaust hose is brown on the inside also. I'm dropping heads off at the machine shop this week to check for cracks.It has been doing this for awhile and I thought i fixed the problem about 4 months ago but I thought the riser gasket was the problem,it was leaking.Are those heads better than the rect port 088 ?

If you have a 454-496 cid, they work great, I was just offering them if you were in need. I have had then on the shelf, the other pair I used on a 496, made well over 500 hp with solid cam. This was a long time ago.
Something is going on if you have reversion. Is that thru transom exhaust, or Y pipe and transom? You might want to check the water level at exhaust, also if the flappers are gone in the y pipe, you can pull water there also on shut-down.

i just threw up a little looking at that! Definitely time for a set of aftermarket heads and some extra HP

Flappers are missing and the angle of the exhaust from the riser to the transom is terrible. I'm gonna try to extend the riser with some pipe if that doesnt help I will add 3" blocks to the riser,I think thats the way it was in the other boat it came out of originally.Those heads sound good but i would have to change my manifold and spend money i dont want to spend I have 3 other projects going on and the old lady is not happy!

You can run a square port manifold with oval port heads. Make sure they check the valve guides to

Kraus, do you live on rumsey island,I used to keep my boat there on anchor dr. By the way I just threw up a little thinking about throw up, Imagine how i felt when I took the manifold off,but I'm gonna grind until it looks new,I hope

Valve guides look pretty good I think ,just 2 exhaust ports are rusted,the rest of the head looks great

What are you doing it with? Emory cloth or a cutting tool?

You should be able to touch it up with an emory cloth grinding kit fast - like really really fast. Just watch out for those seats....