For gen 1 small blocks (pre-LT1)? I know L31 Vortecs are good, but they dont handle much lift and require special intakes. What other options do i have? I cant afford to spend 1000 on a set of heads.

 

With porting and 1.94/1.60" valves:
LG4/LB9 416's or 081's. 601's will also work.

With porting:
L98 083's.

 

083's, 081, and 416 are good, 113's are good with port work, 291's are among the best although the hardest to find.

All of them need work to go from a mediocre head to a good performance head. Thats true of all GM heads though, but the ones listed above are the best 'base' to begin with and have the most potential.

 

I would have to say 601. They flow amoung the leader, even with 1.84/1.50 valves in them, have 53cc chambers, and the old 60s closed style combustion chamber instead of the bathtub style smog ones.

 

Other than vortecs the best factory heads are the late post 1968 camel back "feulie" head. casting numbers end in 492,040,041, 186 and 370. These all have alternator bracket bolt holes but not hardened exhaust seats for unleaded gas.
GM over the counter "Bowtie" heads are good too.

Next would be the 350 L-98 TPI heads cast 083 and aluminum 113 These port up real well and have a good combustion chamber. Especially modded.
If you want a low compression ratio then the old pre 1974 smogger heads (heavy castings are not bad with bigger valves and lots of porting 441,487(x) 336(x) 920.

then comes the 305 HO and TPI heads 416 and 081
Need bigger valves and lots of porting.

The heads to be avoided for performance work are the 882/624 smoggers and TBI 191/193 swirlport heads.

 

Those are what I am using, although with 1.94/1.60 valves. GREAT heads, but difficult to keep the compression ratio in check with a big-bore motor like a 350.

My 350 has flat-top pistons with those heads and a .040 head gasket.... lots of compression lol.

 

The ones five7 mentioned are actually "findable", the others mentioned by F-bird are great, but very difficult to find nowadays.

FWIW - i'm running the 416 castings on my 350. 58cc chambers stock, I ported to 64cc's, and run 10:1 CR after decking the block a tad.

 

camel backs.. no idea what casting number.. but made some descent power on my old setup.. 1.84 60ft on 26x8.5 slicks.. spinning like mad way past the tree..

 

Only problem I was saying, is that they aren't very common anymore.

 

The actual question was what is the "BEST" factory head. If we are talking strictly production heads then it is the Vortec L31 head bar none. There just aren't any better factory heads. (assuming Gen I engines)
There are better GM heads that were never production such as the bowtie cast iron or the fast burn aluminum.
If you want to know what are acceptable heads,head sthat can be run as is or ported, all the numbers mentioned for the 305 engines are good for 305s. For 350s it is problematic, the aluminum ZZ4 heads are OK, they can be purchased from GM, L98 heads are OK as well but need minor work. They accel over other choices because of their combustion chamber shape
WARNING! Controversial statement ahead. Prior to about 1986/1987 there are no good 350 heads. The open chamber heads were awful. The old favorites with the closed chambers are way better, but new technology makes scrounging for a 40 year old rusty casting with soft seats and unknown prior valve work a waste of effort. They're still going to need porting to match the Vortecs and possibly even the L98s