Advice on small block (and transmission) shopping?

My advise to you is to do what you can afford, but keep all the original pieces if they are from that car. Seems silly but someday you might want to put the car all back to original and you cannot get any more original than the pieces that came from that car. I wish I had kept some origianl pieces from different cars because once they are gone there is no getting them back!! Just my two cents worth!