First Engine Build - Advice Needed

1st pic $300 I bought a complete 360.
2nd pic $2500 now it's a 408
3rd pic $2200 1970 AAR Cuda 6 pack.

Do the math so far. It's not cheap. But I enjoy it.

I'm assuming that all three pics are from a custom build? I figured about $5k-$6k for my engine build, so I probably wasn't too far off.

I have $250 invested in my 383, intake manifold has a crack in it, the carb and distributor is damaged, and it's missing a lot of parts. I have all the internals, but I will likely only be able to salvage the crank shaft and block... maybe the rods as well.

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