By all means, share your engine build and the ongoing improvements to your fine '40 coupe with us. You'll find a wide range of experience -- and opinion -- among us, and you might learn some things you'll want to remember.
In choosing to power your '40 with a warmed-up GMC 270, you have cast your lot with some Great Eccentrics. Some day you will appreciate that expensive experience and give thanks for it.
Your man has some time and labor invested in his bare 302 head. See what he wants for it. i should not want to pay more than $300 for that, but "it's worth what one will give and the other will take." For now, it's not essential to your build, but it might be useful in the future, to use or to trade for something you want.
The work you have outlined for your 270 head looks good. Larger valves -- 1.94-inch intakes and 1.6-inch exhausts -- and the three-angle valve job should be helpful. "Smoothing out" the ports is a good idea, but it is something you want to to undertake with care and patience. Haste makes waste in a hurry with a grinding tool! In the same way, take care to assemble everything correctly, with the proper clearances and torque specifications. A GMC engine service manual will serve you well.
God's Peace to you.
d
Inliner #1450
