Exactly, it's the 360's that have the stigma. They never released a hi-po 360 engine. If the factory had put out a 4 barrel 360 with a 340 cam in it no one would be so high on the 340's now. There's nothing magical about the 340's, they're basically just 318's with 22 more cubes and better heads. I just don't see wasting the dollars to pay for the reputation of a factory 340, when you're not building a factory 340. Because they cost 2-3 times as much as a 360, and 4 or 5 times as much as a 318. A 360 built the same as a 340 will win out every time. As for the 318, if you upgrade the internals enough you might as well go stroker for the costs involved. If you buy the big heads, better connecting rods and pistons all that's left is the crank, and you have to spend a chunk of what the stocker crank costs to turn the original. No replacement for displacement. You could go stroker on the 318 too, comes out around 390. I've always liked the idea of a turbo'd 318, but the problem is the fabrication work. If you're not really familiar with turbo's it's a problem, because there's no "kit". There are some shortcuts and you can do the searches on here, but most end in pain. There's just so much fabrication for the hot and cold pipes, and the routing sucks on an A-body. You'd be way money ahead building the stroker. Again, just my opinion. Guys have totally made the turbo work and work well, but it's a significant amount of work to do it right.
The 100 amp alternator will work. It's marginal for the stock bulkhead connector and amp gauge. I made sure all my connections were good and clean before I added mine, but the bypass is still the way to go.
The lower support brace from US Cartool is spendy, heck, all of their stuff is. But I look at it in terms of time. Like, how long will it take me to make this, and will it look that good? Usually their stuff wins if I consider making what I make at work, which is still a lot less than I'd pay a shop to make the stuff.
I would totally sell my 340. I'd just have to build a 408 first to replace it. :D
It's the electric fans. The Ford Contour set up I run has a start draw of like 40 amps. It pulls less than that once it's running, but it's still like 30 amps. If nothing else is on maybe you can get away with a 60, but if you're blasting the stereo and have the headlights on, well, you're out of juice.
Mechanical fans are nice for their simplicity, but it's pretty awesome to only have the fans running when they need to be running. None of the various clutch options will do as well as the digital controller I run. Plus it's super nice to have the fans run for another minute or so after shut down in the summer. A properly set up mechanical system should work fine for pretty much everyone, but going electrical does have some nice perks. And the alternator is an easy deal anyway.