alum edelbrock heads

cant sleep?lol
If you put a cam in it any bigger than what you have now, you will lose low-speed torque.
A high mileage cam, can look like crap, but run just fine.Im guessing the front of the engine is still off. And so are the heads,right? So pull one lifter out, and look at the bottom side.Is it still flat,or nearly so, with just a wee tiny cup.That will run fine til winter. Check them all,one at a time.Each lifter has to go back where it came from.Generally,if the lifters are good,then so is the cam.But if you find one or two that are severally dished,well then it becomes a judgement call.Do you want to spend a couple of hundred on something you are just gonna shelve in 6 months or less?
Well heres an idea;
If you are less interested in mph at the big end, and more interested in low speed(city) to mid rpm performance,You could stick a custom cam in there, for just a few bucks more.This cam would have a short period like the stocker, but fast-rate lobes,and as much lift as the cam-grinder can give you, to a maximum of what the heads will support,and ground on a fairly wide LDA.A cam like this would probably have a fairly low operating range.But I can see it being a bit of a tractor.Which,I,for one would like to experiment with. With those Eddies having large valves and higher lift capacity, you may as well exploit that.This is somewhat counter-intuitive thinking, but if you need a cam, or just want a cam, then this is what I would do.And if it turns out you like it, it will be even stronger with higher compression,perhaps to the point of requiring premium fuel under high load/wot conditions. But that can be dealt with later.There are possible ways around that.

BTW, AJ and others, when you say lower DCR with AL heads, I presume you mean the AL heads have the effect (of) reducing detonation tendencies,(to) the same (as) an iron head with (a)lower DCR, is that right?
Quote edited.
Yes, to some extent. The aluminum heads suck heat out of the chambers,and deliver it to the cooling system,and the surrounding underhood air--big time.When I originally put my combo together, It was 11.2Scr,9.2Dcr, and ran 87E10 full load WOT, without detonation at 32 to 35*timing. I quickly found out that on the street,MY a$$dyno couldnt tell the difference in output anywhere in that range, so it has run on the low end most of its life(32/34*). To exploit this effect, I have always run a 205*stat. The heads do require a longer than normal warm-up time tho.I combat that with a fat idle circuit and PLENTY of advance in the Vcan. I think the effect varies with load.
This would not be possible with iron heads, which seem to top the Dcr out around 8.5 on 87, 8.8on 91, and tickling 9 on 93 (from what I have gathered here from members). And with timing limited in some cases.