Aluminum Heads
A stock pair of heads will totally fit the bill and with some porting work will perform just as well.
Only if the oem heads are good to start with. IMO that is.
The biggie is you will dump more money into them than the cost of aluminum heads. Hardened seats, new springs,retainers, locks, maybe even valves and rocker arms considering the economy of scale that aluminum heads provide.
A lot of fear here. Hardened valve seats may not apply. New springs should be part of the new cam price, not head price. If your new cam is used on the very old oem springs, your head needs to be examined. If your locks are wrecked, the tops of the valves stems are also trash. Someone floated the valves and probably often. Not that I would expect a oem set ‘70’s or ‘&0’s to be pristine. New valves are a very very good possibility. You missed valve guides and head milling & seals. ;)
But then again….. let’s run the parts list of building an oem head gs what you’re getting on the OOTB aluminum head.
Let’s also keep in mind most people are paying for the head work and not doing it themselves.
The aluminum is a good deal IMO. The do it yourself we can use the oem head and save very big. Going against a stupid cheap chink head is near impossible to beat and it won’t be if your paying someone to do it.
Locks and retainers are stupid cheap and not worth labeling as an expensive part. That’s like rear mongering. The springs are purchased with the cam like you would the lifters. Re use the oem retainers. Head machining for springs isn’t a always needed.
1.88 valves, summit didn’t list 1.78, but you can get them else where. 8 valves for a whooping $61.52 & exhaust for $60.20.
$121.72 for valves. Springs locks and retainers can come with the camshaft and lifter package with locks designed to fit the OEM valves. Pay a machinist for head milling for a flat surface, cut the valve seats and new guides. For the price of a bit, you can cut down the valve spring seat yourself with a electric hand drill.
(Sorry, I’m a little over over the place with my reply.)