Technical flathead gurus- aluminum head help

With the high cost of new aluminum heads for flatheads, I was hoping to save a buck or two and look at some good used ones. A buddy of mine has some that have had machine work on them and I wanted to see if some of our own HAMB experts could help.
Need to know if this machine work that's been done on these looks acceptable to use on my new street motor.
Any help much appreciated
Rick

 

From what I see they look okay. I'd put a straight edge on them to make sure they are flat and put a piece of clay between the valve and the head with no head gasket installed to check your clearance before final assembly.

 

Bottom pic, upper left corner shows some corrosion that has almost eaten from the combustion chamber to the water. That will need welding.

 

not a fan of using old heads on a street engine as you can't tell how much material has been removed due to corrosion inside head, for a race engine ok but for a street engine not my cup of tea as new heads will help in heat transfer and dissipation IMHO besides new heads are going for about the same price as some idiots want for old crappy shit.....

 

It's hard to come to any conclusion from pictures.
What brand?
Did he mill the surface?
Check for warpage?
How much are you saving $100 bucks?

If you want to save money run the cast iron EAB heads. Better compression.

 

Thanks for the replies! I will check the flat to make sure they're not warped. I can save about $300-$350 on these versus new ones, but I'm still on the fence as new does seem like a good way to go for reliability.

 

If your building any kind of performance FH $300-350 is not very much money and good new heads will save you money and frustration in the long run.

 

Take them to a machine shop and see what they say.

 

Great advice fellas! I think I'm definitely leaning toward new heads as the advice I've heard here makes the best sense. The engine that will be needing the heads is a new rebuild and I think it's worth it.

 

To bad you can't find good composite head gaskets like Ford used originally with their factory aluminum head cars...There use to be gasket sets from Argentina that had them in the sets...

 

Thanks guys. I've decided to forego the used heads and go with new.