what would be better in your opinion? Have the heads decked say 0.030 and go with ss valves and valve job. Or lap the valves and instal a cam?
which way would I see a better improvement?

Get both....they go hand in hand.

I know they would but baby steps for some of us.
One at a time.

Do you have a case gasket leak or any other reason to tear down the motor? If not, I'd do the heads now. Add the cam when you get the funds.

tearing the motor apart isn't an issue to me. just want best bang for the buck.

I'll let you know next week what cam alone does for performance.

go with Heads, a long time ago we did that to my motor first a cam really didnt notice a differance did the heads and made a big differance!! i have a buddy with just heads and his motor is strong

Thanks terry, thats the kind of info I was looking for.

I did not deck my heads just some port & polishing etc also added a cam & a mikuni my motor is night & day. It was my plan all along to wait until motor was out of warranty before doing anything to it. Keith over @ SETX Performance did all my mods it was close, reasonably priced & plus I had a free head job that I had won from there on MMT Radio. I debated on the mikuni for a long time, I love the easy adjustment, clean look etc.

I would think heads

When my warranty is up I plan to just do heads. From what I understand the stock valves dont seat well in the heads.

Then it's not even a question on what to do first! Fix what is broken, before fixing something that isn't. That was kinda the reason for the first question. If there was a reason to tear down the motor, then go ahead and do the cam while you have it apart. If not, do the heads first. If the heads are forked up, then it's a no brainer what to do first.

my motor failed a leakdown test with 67 hrs on it after the valves were adjusted correct...

If you dont do it all at once, Most people will tell you heads/exhaust, cam, then carb if you want more. A cam makes things better, but you need the additional flow from the heads to compliment it well. SO with that said get you a set of heads, and cut them down a little bit for a fresh start and you will be happy.

sorry to high jack ur thread but i need info on heads to give to the guy that does head work down he has never done heads on a briggs but he does all the race cars around here!!! like port ,polish, 3 angle valve job or 5 angle how much to deck etc...........?

i shaved 50 thousanths port and flowed, 3 angle vavle job, stainless vavles, vavle spring spacers, and had the vavles lighted because the guy at the head shop said that they were too heavy for the high rpms i wanted to turn... 450$ excluding the vavles which were 126$ from gator tail

After tearing apart my drive train, crankcase and replacing my cam, removing the heads, getting them shaved, replacing the valves, all sounds like a walk in the park by comparison.