Another option for heads is Speedmasters. If you can wait for it, they get very inexpensive on Black Friday. I've read a lot of good about them, and my own set (which were bare) are very nice castings--something with which the Elder Brock seems to be having issues of late. With a "perfect" 9.600" deck height (which you almost certainly don't have) and .028" gaskets, you're at a very-friendly 9.85:1 static CR with 68cc chambers. 65cc chambers would put you close to 10.2, still perfectly acceptable for pump gas with aluminum heads. My bare ones cost under $600 for the pair last Thanksgiving; assembled ones were around $900/pr if memory serves. Jegs currently sells a
pair of 65cc assembled heads on eBay for $1,165 with free shipping. Other than checking for obvious casting/machining/assembly errors, the biggest issue of which I'm aware with the Speedmasters is that you need to be a bit creative when mounting the alternator. Apparently they're a bit too thick in that area and a little grinding is involved. I love that Ed L. Brock's heads are US cast, but their foundry seems to be slipping. Core shift and porosity have been problems in the last couple of years. There are literally people looking for vintage/NOS versions of still-available Eddy intakes because the current releases have terrible core shift. It's hard to correct ports that don't align.
I can vouch for none of them beyond an inspection of my own Speedmaster castings, so take that with a grain of salt. Still, the information is out there if you look for it. The Chinese heads seem to be changing some minds after a somewhat rocky start. I know none of the aftermarket heads require guide work to run cams over .500" lift, which is not true of OE LA heads--a required machining step (and additional coins) that your guy may not have considered.
If you have any ideas of installing a 4-speed, you might want to see if he can drill the crank further so you don't have to lop off any input shafts. Not all cranks are drilled deeply enough. Don't worry about the reaming, though, because you can use the neat-O pilot bearing from a Dakota (Timken FC69907) that pilots off the converter pocket. It also saves the hassle of pilot-bushing installation. Cheap and easy, just like Grandma. If you're not a fan of the needle bearing, you can replace it with the standard oilite bushing from the musclecar era (National PB286HD). It fits the large adapter perfectly.
The Mancini-branded rocker arms seem to be relabeled PRWs or Speedmasters. Mike @ B3 Racing Engines has told me they're not actually that bad if there's no glaring machining or casting errors right out of the box. If you want the most from 'em, he makes custom shims per measurements you take on your heads to correct the geometry. That being said, again, PRW/Speedmaster stuff goes silly cheap on Black Friday so the savings could be significant if you're patient.
Rocker arms--be they aluminum or stainless--galling to the shaft indicates an oiling problem. I've had various problems over the years but galling hasn't been one of them (aluminums don't seem to like staying adjusted). Regardless, I wouldn't suggest a roller-
fulcrum arm of any sort for your purposes. Roller fulcrums bleed a
lot of oil, which means the passage to the head usually needs to be restricted. Harland Sharp considers it mandatory; .095" for street and .075" for racing. That's not something of which I'm a big fan, at least on a street engine. Pushrods and valve tips need love too. I don't know if you followed my rocker debacle on Agnes, but the adjusters were smoked because the oil bleed-off from the offset shaft holes and poorly-installed end caps didn't allow them to be oiled correctly--and those were (are) not roller-fulcrum arms.
Hughes actually makes what appears to be a nice aluminum arm. Of course they stole the design, because Hughes (ask JC Corbett) . I have a set of eight 1.6:1 arms here, new, but I've not found a use for 'em yet. They are not roller fulcrum--only roller tip. I can't say if they're worth a damn, but they sure look like they're well-made.
The Mancini 'Crane dupes' are essentially copies of the LA solid-lifter rockers (273), so that's a "how much you wanna pay for the essentially the same thing" option. Yes, they're new and some folks with used originals want entirely too much--and you still need to (or at least should) swap the adjusters out for proper locknut parts. On the other hand, if you get the OE 273 arms as a complete set, you should get the banana-grooved rocker shafts. Those are pricey to buy in the aftermarket.
For my nickel, either of the ductile options would be the choice. In fact, I went on a bit of a hoarding spree years back and have a couple of NOS 273 sets, another reconditioned set, and two or three used. Other than the Hughes arms (which double as W2 exhaust arms, hence my purchase of them), those are the only rockers I have for standard LA heads. Not only that, but I have three full sets of W2 ductile-iron arms as well as ductile OE T/A arms... so yeah, I'm a fan. Anyone who tells you they're weak is apparently not familiar with the 1966 D/Dart's wild fast-ramp solid cam, heavy valvesprings, and production-line 273-2V rocker arms. You need to get pretty silly to break them, and I don't think you're going there.
As far as cam wisdom, I'll stick to my mantra:
Call the professionals. And I do mean call, because their online and fax forms seem to get ignored. I called Lunati for a solid roller with a couple of ideas, but was talked into a custom grind
bigger than I'd expected. He told me the specs and said it would be a "really fun" street cam considering the conditions where I live (small town, not a lot of stoplights, definitely not an urban setting with traffic jams). I expected it to be rather cantankerous, but he's the expert so I gave him my card number. The cam will idle down to 850RPM pretty comfortably. The little it's been driven tells me it'll be an animal when I want it to be, but no joke: I could've let my Mom drive the car to church.
Is this a glowing review of Lunati? Uh, maybe? In my experience, if you're honest with your cam grinder you'll be happy with the results, be it Cam Motion, Howard's, Comp (if you can get the latter on the phone), or just about anyone else. I've also heard really good things about Oregon's regrinds, though I have no experience with them. One nice thing about a regrind, though: You know you're starting with a good cam core.
