[Formulajones]

Good decision. The stroker builds are only necessary when you don't have a 455 available to you. You solved that problem.

On heads, you'll have to weigh the cost factor for yourself. I've found redoing 50 year old cast iron heads is a very expensive venture. I generally don't get a pair out of a machine shop for less than $1000 and that's without port work. By the time you buy seats, guides, springs, retainers, valves, and then pay for all the machine work, new guide work, seats and valve job, cutting for positive seals, etc...to have an iron head that flows maybe ~220 cfm, unless you want to spend more for porting, The aluminum heads start to look like a pretty good bargain

I usually do the iron heads for numbers matching type of stuff.