rudy_balboa

The 347 I painstakingly built a few years ago is still pulling its weight, but a windfall of cash has 'forced' me into upgrades....New setup:
1978 vintage block, .030" over
Forged crank, forged H-beam rods, Mahle coated pistons
~11.3-11.6 comp ratio, fed with 91 octane with a bit of 100 octane
RHS 215cc aluminum heads, very mild porting (primarily clean-up)
Comp Cams 286 solid roller, .614"/.621" lift, 248/254 degrees at .050"
Comp Cams steel 1.6 rockers, 7/16" studs with aluminum girdle
ARP head studs, ARP main studs and steel main girdle
Weiand Tunnel Ram, port matched
2x 600 Holley DP's, choke horns machined off
MSD 6AL box, Blaster E-coil, cheapo Summit distributor (only one that fit with the intake)

Question is, theres about a million different types of head gaskets out there, some simple and cheap, most complicated and expensive, and for the life of me, I cant find a good guide to what you need for what application. This motor is gonna be in a (primarily) Saturday Night Special, with the occasional run to the strip. A NOS port nitrous system is more than likely in the future, depending on how much trouble I can get into on the motor alone. I know the 302 is already hurting in the head gasket area, because of the 10 studs per side and them being 7/16" instead of the fat 351 1/2" studs. Im tempted to go copper, but hate retourquing, and Ive heard bad things about sealing around water passages. Im trying to stay away from O-ringing the heads/block, but if the spray comes into the situation, might have to. Any and all opinions would be greatly appreciated.....