[SFfiredog]

Hi Sizzler,
I agree with you 100% on your post above. The tin splash shields (with fingers) sandwiched under the rocker stands is a good idea if you can get them to fit. Most of the complete aftermarket shaft assemblies (Erson, Dove T&D, Jesel) will not work with the shields.
The E-brock heads are pretty good right out of the box port and valve pocket wise. There's not much "clean up" you can do without resorting to a full port job. and for an engine under 400ci It's just not worth it. The 2.19/1.75 vavle combo would not only suffer from serious valve shrouding but the intake valve won't even clear the cylinder wall. When I get a set of complete E-brocks I always dissassemble them, check the valve guide clearance and valve seat consentricity, surface the heads, hand lap the valves and check the seat width. I also use a higher quality valve guide seal and depending on the cam specs, assemble the heads with either the supplied springs (which aren't bad on the FE head, 120lbs on the seat) or new springs to match the cam installed at the proper spring height.
The Eagle rods are supplied with an ARP 8740 rod bolt. They are not bad, and are equal to most aftermarket replacement bolts for stock application rods. If high HP or RPMs are expected, an upgrade to the ARP L19 rod bolt is a good, but costly ($200) requirement. I recomend that a rod bolt stretch gauge be used whenever tightening a rod bolt. I have found as much as a 12 ft.lb difference between different batches of the same rod bolt for a given stretched length (usually .00059" to .00062"),
--Mike