Just weighed at FedEx. 1971 455, small valve head, cast iron. Minus the valve train. 65.0 pounds. Oops, I mean 56 pounds.
I shipped a complete stage 1 heads bolted to a small piece of plywood so they would not fall out the bottom as easy, 62 per head, when I got my AL te2 heads shipped to finishline the box says 70 for both heads bare
Are you going to fully port them to see how much weight you shave. I like it when someone who was running iron heads,switches to aluminum heads,runs a 10th quicker,then claims it makes more power. Yea,maybe,but you also dropped another boat-anchor off the ship. I'm going from a filled block,iron heads,stick crank,steel rods to unfilled girdle-block,billet crank,aluminum rods,aluminum heads,etc. I am going to weigh each engine,to see what the overall difference is. I know I went from a 73lb crank to a 55lb crank. All in the right place.
My goal is to port them myself with lots of help and advice. it may be a while before they are ported. A guy should really weigh a car before doing mods. It would be a good way to compare apples to apples. You're right, a mod doesn't make a car 0.1 quicker just because of the power gained, you also have to factor in the weight savings.