The best castings to start with are the pre smog or what I call the tear drop non smog heads. They have the pad underneath the exhaust port but aren't drilled with the EGR holes.
For the most part, all the castings can end up at the same place. There is no head that's way better than any other head. With simple porting you can make them all the same.
My current engine has 2 different castings. They flow the same, have the same port volumes and the only ones who know it is now me, you, everyone who reads this and the heads because I told them they weren't the same.
