soooooooooooooo, im getting ready to tweek the exhaust port a little....and after i removed about .020-.030 of material off the floor near the port exit.....i created a hole

i called MM, and they are sending a call tag to have the head picked up and either they or Bulldog will evaluate the casting to see what gives.

as for these heads being true "out of the box" since they came from MM, i would have to say they should be considered as such since there wasnt any type of "modifications" done to them other than perhaps a back cut to the intake valve....and the valves may come from the supplier that way.

i did go and do a basic clean up of the intake bowl for #1, since that port was down on flow(i'll post the numbers later), but it looks like it will take a bit of work to get the weaker ports into the 305-310cfm range.
not as much as an E head, but probably more than an SR.

i'll have to go through my notes to see if i can find some numbers for an SR with only a bowl blend to see how the mid-lift numbers compare.

at this point(which granted is very early on in the Bulldog testing) i still feel the best port design for the application these heads are targeting is...believe it or not...the original stage VI.
if that head were manufactured with the quality of an E head....that would be a very good product.