[blykins]

For a street engine, you want the highest-flowing, smallest port volume head that you can find. I use a lot of the Trick Flow Twisted Wedge heads for small blocks. Since you're starting from scratch with a new rotating assembly, it would be an easy transition since the TW heads require a different piston than the other heads.

Most of us buy heads bare so that we can custom assemble them to the camshaft specs and so we can adjust guide clearances, valve jobs, spring install heights, etc. It costs the end user a little more money, but it's essentially a custom head package. When I send cylinder heads out that I assemble, all the install heights are adjusted and measured, combustion chambers are cc'd, and the valve springs are set up to match the camshaft.

The camshaft is probably the most important piece of the engine. I absolutely abhor off-the-shelf cams as they are all made as universal parts, in the sense that you will find the same camshaft ground for every engine family. A SBF will not want the same cam as a SBC, which will not want the same cam as an FE. Going further than that, every cylinder head will require a different camshaft, based on intake/exhaust flow ratios, port volumes, and other specifications. The cam that will work for a 190cc AFR head will not be optimal on a 190cc TFS TW head. Compression ratios have to be taken into account. Rearend gears have to be taken into account. Engine vacuum has to be taken into account. If you call someone for a cam and their response is, "I have one that works well for 408's", then they are selling a "universal" camshaft. A correctly chosen camshaft should come at the end of a conversation where large amounts of data is collected.

As you can tell, I'm not really into cookie cutter engines.

My rotating assemblies consist of Scat crankshafts and rods, Racetec forged pistons, Mahle rings, and Clevite or Federal Mogul bearings. For the price of an off-the-shelf forged piston, I sell a complete custom that allows me to adjust the bore size in .001" increments, the compression height, the volume, and the piston ring dimensions. Not an Eagle fan at all, even with SBF stuff. There has been a ton of Eagle FE crankshaft failures as mentioned, and I've had more than a few Eagle cranks in here for other engine families that I have rejected.

For a street engine, a cast crankshaft is perfectly fine, along with an I-beam rod. An externally balanced crankshaft is fine too and it can save money on balancing.

I wouldn't recommend the TKO 500. The 600 would be a better choice in that you have a choice of overdrive ratios, and the 1st gear ratio is more suitable for a street engine. Pricing is going up considerably after the first of the year, so you may want to keep that in mind.