After countless issues getting the car running correctly, I decided to send the head to Bo to be used as a core for a ported head. This head was sent to CHI in Grand Prairie Texas to have it rebuilt in February of this year. Here is what Bo had to say about the head:
"It looks like the previous shop installed intake seats as well (not normally done) and sure enough there is a crack in one the intake seats that runs up to the spark plug threads. They tried to fix it with seats but if the crack doesnt fully machine out then adding a seat is going to spread the crack even more which is what I think happened. It is extremely rare to see a intake seat crack. 1/100 heads or more. Only seen it a few times and in the N/a heads like this one. You do know this is a higher compression head that is for a ranger right?"
They claim to have sent back the same head I sent them. They wanted me to send them the head again and let them repair it. I asked for a refund and they flatly refused to do anything. Live and learn, I guess. So I'm out the $400 I paid them, a $400 core charge to Bo and around $300 shipping each way.