You can open up the gasket surface to MW, but not the full length of the port due to the pushrod location. Never done it myself and assume it's a lot of grinding for ??? results. I know Dwayne -- possibly others -- have posted pics of that type of work in the past, FWIW.

Best out-of-the-box standard-port 4150 intake IMO is the Trick Flow piece... IMO. Andy's used the low-deck version on his builds and my 650+ HP RB 452 build has the raised-deck version.

Your friend's performance goals are right in line with mine, too.