I hear you Todd. The heads are something I just found out about today. The pricing was good but that only made me curious. I won't be using any off brand or cheap stuff in this engine. It will either be Dart, AFR or Trick Flow for heads. The guy doing the machine work has a lot of engines running around here ( I have seen many of them run at the races here and have known him for a few years via my best friend, we just never talked cars much before and I didn't realize he has his own business out of his home shop). So I am very comfortable with his abilities. I have spoken to a few people running his engines this week and they are also very happy with his work. We have talked a bit about what my goals are and he said the same thing you did, set it up right. Meaning matching the cam and heads, comp ratio, piston selection...
I'll be talking more with him soon and getting a specific parts list together. I'll post it before I start buying anything and see what you think.
Thanks for all of you help in this. I REALLY appreciate it! If you get up this way or I get down there, dinner and drinks are on me!
Eric