I have a 350 shortblock with a .480 lift cam. Can I bolt on a set of these heads without having the valve guides cut down?

probably no. Take the heads to a shop and have them check it out.

The retainers were hitting the seals on mine at .460. Check them out carefully and don't assume anything. You can shim and use offset retainers to gain a little, but cutting them is a once and done deal and will give you what you need. Might as well cut them for bigger springs too.

Ahh, so much for the $40 head swap- I have an 8.3:1 350 with 882's on it, and I am building a Edelbrock headed 406. But meanwhile I have this set of 081's sitting around, and a friend who said putting 305 heads on a 350 was "retarded" on another message board. SOOOOOO.......

I was going to just hose the goo off with some brake-kleen, lap the valves in the seats with some lapping compound and a suction cup, swap the Comp springs from the 882's on, a set of valve seals and a top end gasket set and just see what a difference it would make at 10.3:1 . I know I'd be going down from 1.94 intakes to 1.84's or something like that, but the CR would make a big difference. And I could show him my timeslips and ask him how retarded I am.

Anyway I'm not going to send them out to have the guides cut down and all that, not worth spending money on them just out of curiosity when I can put it into the new motor.