I picked up a set of 2.02 intake J heads for a project I am gaining some steam on.............360 / 408 motor that will be going in a cruiser type of deal.
I could tell at a glance that someone took a burr to the exhaust , and I figured that it would save me the effort.
Today , I tore down the motor and heads , to take to be thermal cleaned and magnafluxed before I start throwing real dollars at them.
The heads had triple springs on them.............it was all my spring compressor wanted to handle to get them to where I could get the keepers off , except for one exhaust that had a broken spring.
But triple groove keepers and valves.
They have bronze guides installed and PC seals.
I should have taken some pics , but will get them tomorrow before I drop them off.
The pockets are really opened up behind the valves , but no apparent effort to blend the guide boss where it protrudes into the port.
Now , I am wondering if it was a home brewed Flintstone approach to making power , and have they been too hogged out to work worth a darn.
The chambers have not been milled significantly based on a side by side look next to the 1.88 valve heads that came off the block I plan on using , so either they got compression with the pistons , or lived with 8:1 or so.
What would be a red flag for any of you if you were looking to use them ?
Thanks in advance.

I would have them magged and pressure tested before doing any thing else
If good then check all the valves to see if any of them are bent or not IE broken valve spring

No bent valves , but the guy who is thermal cleaning them says that the guides might have to go.
Apparently the bronze guides like to expand at a different rate and will loosen when baked.
But the port job looks to have had a little attention to detail paid , and they are not just enlarged for the sake of making them bigger.
So if they pass magnaflux and pressure testing , I will still have to figure out how close I am going to be to a set of new Eddies ................. throwing guides , surfacing and a valve job at them will likely get me half way there.
Why is it that cheap deals never turn out to be cheap ?

Kinda depends on what you're using them on, but I don't see anything scary.
I'd sure want to make sure they're not weepers or cracked.
When you say "triple springs", do you mean doubles with a damper (damper being flat-wound inner) or 3 spring coils per unit?

I’d have measured the guides for clearance to see if they were worn out or not.

If they didn’t need replacing, I’d have run the heads through the jet wash and bead blasted the chambers and bowls to save the guides.

Doubles with a damper.
I only have an on the head tester and no rockers for them , so I have no idea what the pressure was , but they were plenty stiff.
But I am guessing that someone had a big roller in what ever combination it saw before I got to them.
I will have them checked for leaks / cracks and use them.
If the guides need to be replaced , I'll switch to an 11/32 stem SBC valve at + .100 length and save some $$.
That is based on the assumption that I am not going to trip over a sack of cash in the next couple weeks and do it the right way.

A couple of the guides had pretty good wobble when I broke them down , so they would need some attention regardless.

If you can grab the valve on both ends with a clean guide and clean valve stem inserted into the guides with between .100 and .500 valve lift off the seats and wiggle or move the valve in the guides side to side or front to back they are way to loose