well ****, pretty soon im sending my head of to portflow for the headwork and was wondering what, if any, is a reliable brand yet still affordable, for valves, retainers; well pretty much the whole valvetrain? any offerings are appreciated.

 

ask portflow, many times porters will have a certain type of valve/ret./valvspr. that they like to use.
Portflow has plenty of options including their own stuff.
OR you can go with whatever your cam manuftr. suggests.
You may also want to look into Rocket Motorsports, Supertech, Crower, Ferrea Toda just to name a few.