Is it a 302, 351W or 351C? there are tricks to getting the most power on a budget for all three of these engines. look into cam timing (degreeing the cam), cam lift, duration, and lobe centers, intake and head configurations, porting the exhaust (if you plan to use the stock heads), flat top pistons, etc. When I was learning all this stuff back in the '80s and '90s I spent a lot of time at my machine shop, and at the track, picking peolpes' brains. Most guys are very helpful. There are also, all sorts of articles on the internet which help explain all of these things, in detail, for free.