Good morning, quick question. Got my vortec heads back from the machine shop and there looks to be a chunk of coating on a stem in the internals of one of the heads. Worried vibrations down the road could potentially lead to his breaking off in the engine? If so, would filing this down and possibly leaving some exposed metal affect the coating integrity? Noob so apologies if a dumb question. attached are photos.

 

I'm not sure what exactly you're worried will happen. Just break it off. Your heads will be absolutely fine.

 

Are you sure that wasn’t there when you sent the heads in? It looks like part of the casting.

If it is a glob of coating, it should be easily removed using a pick or small screwdriver. To prevent losing it inside the engine, Poke a hole in the center of a paper towel and place it over the stem so the towel covers the surrounding area and creates a kind of bowl to catch it.