[Tom Meyer]

On rebuild, go back to a gm dealer for all of your parts they have best prices and good parts. Gm head gaskets are thinner than aftermarkets. The head responded to more air flow with less valve angle [30*] on a flow bench but never did a back to back on dyno.
But I am sure a good stocker valve job would help. For cooling just take the middle of the thermostat out run a wire to the cooling relay to a toggle switch and you will keep it under 140 all day. I think you could keep this dime rocket build under a nickel. We have a lot of spare parts if you need anything let me know. We have a claim rule that another racer can claim your whole car for 1500. dollars so you have do builds as cheep as possible. Tom