Sounds like we're doing about the same thing. I just hate to dump $2500.00 or so into a set of aluminum heads so I can get more HP and probably in more trouble. The prices for CHI or AFD were in that price range. I looked at all the other aluminum heads being sold for a Cleveland and there are cheaper sets, but not too many good praises for them. Like you said, the heads can always be changed out later. I live in Northern Illinois and our fun time for old cars is basicly late April to October. I probably won't drive 3000 miles a year either. I would rather put the head money into an A/C unit for the car. Are you doing anything special to your iron heads? I just planned on new seats, guides, valves, springs and whatever else. The R/S ratio on a 408 is not all that bad. I know the cylinder walls on a 351C block are thin and I then when I read a few horror stories about cracked cylinders after they installed a 408 stroker, I started to worry. Who knows how these were driven and what kind of RPM's they saw. I'm keeping the car's original engine as it was. If the stroker breaks, I still have the original to stick back in the car.