I found a clean running 194 out of a 1964 chevy nova with 80k for $100.00.. I was not sure when I started this project if I was going to put a 194 head on my 250 but since I found a motor for a decent price I thought might as well.. but anyways here is my question.. is there a certain 194 that I should be looking for?? is there a 194 head that I should avoid?? I ask because of my luck I will bring the motor home just to find out that in 1964 they made an engineering change that if you put that specific head on a 250 the planet will explode. Thanks for any advice

I don't really care for using a 194 head for a few reason's.
Many are cracked
The early ones have Siamese intakes and exhausts. Double yuck.
Why not just work on your existing head?

The thing with the 194 head, not the "conjoined" exhaust ones, is the chamber if smaller so it will boost compression some. So it was a cheap improvement on a stock engine. Some here feel that as soon as you start working on them you end up loosing that advantage because bigger valves have to be enshrouded and that makes the chamber larger. Some here claim there is still an advantage if you do the work right but they won't tell what that entails.

Conjoined is the PC term. We don't want to offend the people of Siam.