I can't disagree with the above statement...
Moving on...
I can't recall his nick, but there's a fella from Sweden or Finland (I think) with a 273 in a Duster. He freshened up the heads, put on a 4bbl intake, a Comp 282S cam, headers and some other goodies...well more than enough to put a smile on your face. If it's in good running condition, and you want to stick to basic mods right now, I'll follow suit with the above suggestions:
small 4bbl with accompanying air cleaner
Weiand action plus or some other low rise dual plane intake
dual 2 1/4" exhaust; headers would be nice but don't cheap out...
electronic ignition
Then...when you feel like getting froggy with it, Rob said it pretty well....