Square ports or round????????

[81K5GUY]

I got the engine in my 81 back together after the blown head gasket last week and after the start up I found out that I had a header gasket leak .I bought the Mr Gasket ultra seal gaskets and tried them but it was leaking from the middle two ports .Anyway after I found the leak I decided to try some of the Percy's aluminum gaskets that I have heard so many on here talk about.After plopping down the $44 for em at Autozone I came home and pulled the header off and the ports on the heads arent exactly square or round.I bought the square ones but decided to wait for some opinions on whether or not to try these square ones or take em back and get the round ones.I noticed the primaries on my headers are round but they match up to the square gaskets pretty good but the gaskets dont match the heads as well.Here are a few pics of the heads ,header and gaskets.My ? here is are the ports on these heads square considered square?I also plan on cutting the header flange in between #1 and #3 and #5 and #7 hoping that maybe that will help seal the header up to the head a little better.

 

[sweetk30]

dont wast your time with header gaskets. get stock style manifold gaskets. i run 2 sets dubbled up. never gave me any leaks. and the cheeper headers flanges warp bad.

 

[81K5GUY]

I may try that cause I wasnt at all happy about paying $44 for the gaskets.The headers are Hooker super comp and the flanges look pretty staright but I figured if I cut them like I said above it would let each port be tightened individually without be pulled back by the others.

 

[sweetk30]

try the dubble stockers first. i use felpros my self.

 

[81K5GUY]

still wondering if these are considered square ports?

 

[Chevy305]

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=SUM%2D111406&N=0&autoview=sku

The copper ones are $30

 

[nstarry]

a couple of the old timers at work swear by cutting the flanges ! brand new or used.

 

[dyeager535]

I *believe* those are considered square ports, all small block heads (even Vortec) exhaust ports look like that, which I've seen anyways.

 

[81K5GUY]

Thanks bro I was thinking te same thing but Ive been out of the chevy game for so long (playing with Mustang) that I wanted an outside opinion.Its all slowly coming back to me .You should have seen me trying to get the firing order right on this thing,good thing I still have all my Chevy manuals lol.

 

[81K5GUY]

tried the stock manifold gaskets doubled up and cut the flange and it worked like a charm.Thanks a million guys!