IMO there's been many motors like that started up and run many miles and the rusty rocker arms were just fine. It happens when a motor is stored in a unheated area and not run, condensation then rust.

A scotchbrite pad and some work hand work and they would be fine to run just as long as they are not all pitted up in the important areas. They get inspected that way.

So after starting on the heads, we noticed one casting was thicker. One side ended up being a 915(?) casting and the other was a 596 casting.

So we pulled my smogger 596 heads off the shelf and tore those down.

Besides needing stem seals, they looked 1000x better than those other ones. So valve stem seals on order, and they should be going together. Did some bowl work, cleaning up some boogers sticking into the ports. Just going to do a quick lap job, clean em up a bit. Hopefully they don't smoke.

Pics to come soon I hope. It takes a while to resize them on my phone. I miss my computer haha

Edit. How do I plug those ports? I'm thinking 1/4" drill, and a 1/4" 20 tap, with set screws. Anything else easier? Or CHEAPER lol do I need a special bit?

Update. Reassembled the smogger heads.

I wanted to post pics of the work, but my buddy is an old racer. Said he did some things not everyone knows about. We cleaned the ports and bowls up

So here's the driver side when we started reassembly. New aprons/valve stem seals.

Fully assembled.

All wrapped up and ready to go home. The old heads are still in the trunk. Should pull them out. Eh. Later.