Roughly how much would it cost to take a pair of vortec heads to a machine shop and get them ported and polished. Or would it be better to just get new heads?

Call up your local machine shops and ask them. (It really does vary that much.) I will say this, you pay for what you get. Cheaper, especially with machine shops, is NOT always better. (It's only better on your wallet, but if you want bang for your buck pay the extra dough.)

IMO a polish is a waste of money. Unless you're trying to squeeze out another 5 hp. If you're asking about cost, then you probably can't afford it. To get the valves done and new seats put in can cost over $500 easy. To get heads hand ported and flow matched (which is the most important thing), and getting the heads to match the intake, on average I'd say right at $1000. Like he says you get what you pay for. Different shops charge different rates. If you go to a race shop that has several $50k-$100k machines in it, then it refelcts in the price. Plus you have race engine builders doing street work, which will also cost you. If you go to the joe blow NAPA shop you could probably get it done for around $500, but it probably won't be flowed, there's no guarantees they didn't nick the seats, they probalby will just clean up the casting flash and give the rest of it a good grind. I'm just throwing out numbers here. You'll probably find places charge a wide range for work.

What I did was found a shop that I could trust. I toured the facility and looked at some of the other work that he turned out. Then I asked around about him. After that, I just give him a blank check and tell him to do what needs to be done.

Too Much!!!!
If you want vortec heads, Guys on ebay are selling New Pro Topline ones that look pretty good, they dont need the guides machined for higher lift cams, already set for screw in studs and most likely dont need the extra port and polish work.
There are people selling them complete but heres a link to a bare set with pretty good detail.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33617

Good luck, Tony

I love my Vortecs, but seeing how Edelbrock, and Pro Topline have the same design, only they kept going where GM left off, I would take the aftermarket ones.