Which head is better, with or without cups for plugs?

In all honesty, it's a matter of personal preference. The changes in combustion chamber and such are relatively minor.

Only real difference is there is a better selection of spark plugs for the later style heads.

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Years ago I took a peanut head, small plugs and a drool tube, large plugs, heads to a head porter. On the small plug head, in addition to hardened valve seats, the wall across from the spark plug was more vertical. He said that chamber shape would provide a better performance output than the other older style head. The peanut head is heaver and the way it is cast if you bend a push rod and a lifter pops out, I don't know how easy it will be to put back in. This is because there is a lot of casting around the push rod holes. On the older drool tube head that area is all open. Street use I would use the hardened seat head. Racing I would use the same head, but remove the casting around the push rods. Both heads will work well with porting, bigger valves, better springs, etc. That is a little info from my experience. I think drool tube heads look cooler!

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Hyper_pak