71,000 miles on the engine? Probably 171,000 if the truth be known. I can almost guarantee if you yank the heads with that mileage to have the machinc shop go thru them with new valve guides and seals and clean up the valves you will start sucking oil past the rings where you didn't before. So before you start pulling heads do the easy and cheap stuff others have suggested, compression test, tune up, timing, rebuild the carb. After you do your dry and wet compression tests and get your numbers, go talk to a good machine shop and run the numbers past the boys there. If the numbers are good, then do your major tune up and maybe an HEI.
