Clean, mill and Port 799's or replace?
 

I have a set of 799 heads that I bought for $400 a while back and they guy said they had about 70,000 miles on them. He had cleaned them himself and said they worked great but had just replaced them with something different. I am getting ready to start working on my 2004? 5.3 which currently has 706 heads which I am replacing anyway. This will be my first time attempting a cam and head swap and just want to do it right the first time.
I am one of those people who wants to do things right the first time, does his research and tries to have everything bought and ready to go.

I am trying to decide on whether or not to take the heads to a local machine shop and get them checked out, cleaned, ported, and milled down to bump compression which will cost $375 to $450 or send them to TSP and have them do it where I know it will be done right but cost more.

Or the other option is to buy the 2.5 heads with stainless valves they carry for $1550 and sell my 799's.

The guys at TSP have been awesome at answering my questions and basically have me sold on the 224R cam they carry and have not been high pressure on selling me new heads.
The other factor is that the 799's I have do not have springs so I bought some Comp Cams 918 springs on here but still have to get the retainers ect and I plan on buying rockers with the trunion upgrades.
I always get good advice on here so just wanted to get some opinions. Thanks

I would be hesitant to have a local shop clean, port, and mill them for that price. You get what you pay for. That being said, you should be able to find a place that will sell you ported and milled 243/799 heads that require a core exchange that is built into the price. That's what I did when I got my ported 243's from WCCH here in CA. Gave them a pair of untouched heads and walked out with my ported heads. I had them install springs as well. They sure were pretty and I know they are reputable and their heads make good power.

I thought TSP had the best deal at $750, but it looks like Livernoise does it for about $500

That TSP $750 includes removing the valves and springs and reinstalling them.

the livernois website says $1000 for their LS cylinder head porting

Can you post the link? I can't find any info on their website so I emailed them and have not heard back.

About a week ago they posted on the forum here and said $500. Unless I read it wrong that's what I got out of it. Here is the link

https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...der-heads.html

just my experience. Texas Speed was incredible, the heads looked amazing when I got them back. Everything about working with them was great. I have since had worked with Russell about some other products they offer and he has even given me advice when its a product I havent bought from them. I will update with a pic of my heads I sent and got back from them.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech...ae63ac0061.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech...1c4463e00c.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/ls1tech...41981de0f4.jpg

Did they rework yours or did you just buy theirs? What was the shipping to sent them there? I guess I am just trying to find out whether or not to have them rework mine or just buy theirs and sell what I have. Thanks for the input though.

I sent mine to them. I want to say ups charge me like $50 to ship. They recommend to ship in two separate boxes so they don't smash into each other during transportation. They did everything. I bought new springs from them to and they installed everything for me. I didn't even want to have to deal with installing springs and seals.

The math I did including how much I paid for the 799s it was cheapest to send them out. The reputation helped me make my decision.

Ok. That helps a lot. Did they replace your valves because I know they offer that.

Mine were in good condition. I didn't need it but they cleaned them real good