Ron,
The head was designed to provide the maximum possible power output for people with engines that wanted a bolt-on piece. It is a bolt on piece which I am very proud of. There was a lot of engineering to make this a possibility. One of the things that Greg Young focused on was having a head that had a really well rounded flow chart, meaning it picks up flow over the stock piece at .100" all the way to .600"+. THis will allow the head to perform well in many different applications from daily driver all the way to extreme sled pulling applications.
It performs well in a street application, but the thing I am proud to say is due to design it can be quite a different animal. The deck is .100" thicker for better sealing in extreme applications. The exhaust has a much thicker wall so that a "D" port shape can be used. The weak areas that typically break on applications over 150 psi have been reinforced. The top has been reinforced which also makes the head more rigid in extreme applications but it also allows a one piece valve cover. This should allow for the aftermarket to come up with some really cool new rocker options. The port walls are at least .200" thickness with the exception of the area in between the intake and the exhaust port where is is around .130"-.140" on the exhaust side. And another exciting thing is that over the intake the casting is solid all the way to the top surface. This will allow major modification of the port for high rpm applications and individual runners.
Although we made a lot of improvements, there is still plenty of room for non street race applications or people like yourself Ron that bend the description of how much power can be used in a "street" truck.
Greg Young has a definite advantage with the modification of this head since he designed the ports. He has spent a lot of time in the last month on the flow bench with every option imaginable with Van's head. There has been a lot of progress with the seat, valve and back-cut angles even without touching the port. If you want the best now, that is Greg Young.
That being said, since this head has similarities to small block iron heads, a lot of the same things will apply. If you are looking for someone local to modify your head, look for somone who has experience with 18 degree or Vortec port modification.
A new update, the new head will come standard with a 1.850" intake and a 1.750" exhaust. We are sharpening our pencil and are looking at a little lower cost than we thought initially. Although it is not all in stone yet, we are looking at offering the head in bare casting, with a custom valve job complete with our springs retainers and locks, and eventually with different ZZ manifolds installed with trick port modifications.
On a standard bore the intake is .025" from the bore and the exhaust .035".
A sonic tester would be money well spent for anybody porting many of these heads.
Zach