5.9L Magnum recipe...

So I've got this 166,000-mile 5.9L Magnum I picked up for $300. It's torn down at this point and the machine shop has given it a clean bill of health for a rebuild. Now I get to pick parts.

What do I want out of the engine? A good, solid, fun driver that makes good power on 87-octane gas. I'm not looking for a world-beater here; I just want something that won't get completely embarrassed by stock LS3s and the like.

Machine shop says the crank is fine, but the journals should be polished before it's re-used. They say the block is great and the bores are in good shape, but they recommend an overbore and hone, plus the decks are a bit uneven and should be milled...So I'm going to go with that. But, this stuff depends on what heads I pick, what pistons I pick, and so on. So here I am.

I'm leaning towards the Edelbrock Performer RPM 61775 heads, probably non-ported, with head bolts from ARP. For the rods I am leaning towards the Eagle 6123-CP I-beam rods with press-fit pins.

My real questions are with the cam, intake and pistons. I also need to figure out how to get cam and crank position sensors set up on this engine, and to make matters more fun, I want to run a manual transmission. What pistons and cam would you recommend for this setup? Seems like the flat-top KBs and Speed-Pros can get me right at 9.0:1 compression with an .040" head gasket using the 58cc chambers of the Edelbrock heads, but I don't really know where the limits of 87-octane are with various cam and piston combos. Hypereutectic pistons are probably the order of the day, since I'm staying naturally-aspirated and won't be running the engine very hard for very long. What would you suggest? Thanks!