I don't think the internals of the engine make a great deal of difference on your personal ride, as far as the engine goes from an authenticity stand point. For myself, when I rebuilt my side oiler I did want to keep it as original as possible. But I was sure was tempted to go with more modern, stronger, better parts. There was some fear about using those 40 year old Le Mans rods, for instance. I dumped the soild roller cam and went with a flat tappet with specs that would have been available 'back in the day'. I retained the iron heads, but considered the weight savings I would have to give up by not using alloy. I retained the original alloy 2X4 intake. I ran even ran an old points and condensor distributor for awhile! I was bummed I had to settle for a 428 crank and considered buying a 427 crank with stock stroke. In short, I wanted to build the motor as close to original specs as I reasonably could. I wanted to get a feel for what it was like 'back in the day'. I did it for ME, not to impress anyone, not to recommend that style to anyone, just something I wanted to do.
I feel pretty good about and take a lot of pride in that motor, it's part of the fun factor for myself.
The point type distributor got old in a hurry! It would miss badly after 6000 rpm or so and I'm left wondering HOW they got more rpm out a points style distributor back in the day. Currently MSD, with a red cap, I hate seeing that...
