Suggestions for new design Aluminum Mopar SB clean slate (kind of) cylinder heads
Here's my thoughts.
Flexibility and economy to me is the name of the game. I think the ideas about valve cover bolt patterns and SBC (or some other common and cheap rocker arms source) are excellent ideas.
I'm not sure if you are having your own castings or adapting existing ones. If you're having your own castings done I would also think about the following.
I would target a port size that gets you to 300 plus CFM out of the box. These heads would work well on smaller 360 based engines but also could support decent power numbers for strokers. I would also cast in enough material to be able to substantially increase the flow capabilities for guys that want to port the heads.
Consider the common breakthrough areas when porting. This is something where some extra material can go a long way.
Maybe a 205 or 208 valve is not necessary at these power levels but if there's enough material there too enlarge the valve sizes significantly that would be great.
Exhaust ports that play well with commonly available headers would be nice. In other words the port shouldn't be bigger on the outlet than say a nice set of TTI headers. Again, cast in the material so that we have some flexibility with the ports.
I'm not an expert on port shapes but it seems like the old school small block exhaust port shape on the floor isn't the best from everything I've read.
Consult with some real experts when it comes to the shape and size of the chambers.
Casting quality is very important. Leaky porous head castings can make a great head terrible.
Final thoughts. I think of you take mine and the other guys suggestions seriously and implement them you could go a long way and sell a lot of heads. However, if you just build a run of the mill 290 CFM head it's going to be a hard sell versus the trick flow head. That's a very nice setup And you would be competing with it directly.