I think Clint Eastwood said it in a movie, "A man needs to know his limitations". So it is with cylinder heads. You need to know their limitations. Stock, cast iron cylinder heads were meant to work in a stock application and environment, from idle to 4,000 rpms where most of the work is done and provide a modicum of horsepower in the process. The runner size was designed with this low-rpm work in mind and as long as you carry through with a low-rpm design on the rebuild, you should be fine.

If it were mine, I'd limit static compression ratio to 9.00 maximum and may even be tempted to use somewhere between 8.5 and 9.0, with a matching cam to achieve a dynamic compression ratio of 8.0 to 8.25. I'd use a piston which has a flat ledge on it to match up with the underside of the head so that I could set the squish at 0.035" to 0.040" and make a viable system to run well on pump gas. A shave on the block for zero deck along with a 0.035" to 0.040" compressed gasket would work. Of course, anytime you cut heads or deck, you should carefully check for alignment before going back together with the motor.
http://streetmachinesoftablerock.com...opic.php?t=350
A stock-type HEI distributor would work for me after being re-curved so that I could run about 10-12 degrees initial ignition timing and 24 degrees centrifugal timing.

I'd choose a cam which would make power from idle to 4,000 rpms and would be ground on a dual pattern favoring the exhaust valve and 112 centerline for smooth operation. You might gain just a little more power by using 1.6 rockers.

This paper I wrote will help you figure static compression ratio.....
http://streetmachinesoftablerock.com...opic.php?t=124

And this site will help you figure dynamic compression ratio. To enter the cam info, use the intake closing point at 0.050" and add 15.
http://kb-silvolite.com/calc.php?action=comp2