porting wonders

I'm new to the world of performance let alone on fe's. I've heard so much about porting so i started reading up on the subject. In an earlier post someon advised to get the feel of an aluminum head. I did that. and tested my hand on an old chevy head i had laying in the corner. It turned out smooth as could be. I started on my 360's heads i have the intake runner opened up and smoothed up had the valves out and smoothed the passage there. That gets me to my questions. Is it worth it to port the exhast side also? If so can i take out enough material to match the gasket pattern or is that too much? Finally if it is indeed worth porting the exhaust what do I do with the thermactor bulge can it be ground smooth like the earlier referred to aliminum heads or do i have to leave it there? Any help is greatly appreciated. :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

chappy yes you do want to do the exz port as well but without a flow bench it is hard to tell if your helping the motor or hurting it ive ported cyl heads myself some worked some didnt its alot easyier to send them to a good shop to get them done and put on the flow bench than banging around and notice little or no difference due to the time and tools involved just my 2 cents

i'll check that out. much appreciated i just have to work on a limited budget that's why i asked i can't really afford the machine shop right now so if that's the only way i guess i'll have to wait thank ya