1974 power wagon questions

I have all kinds of parts. This truck is just about mint. The only thing left is smartening up the heart. It's just that ive had the easy life for a long time and cant remember a lot of the things I knew when I was young.
I've been trying to talk my son into buying one of those $2,400 blueprint bottom-end strokers. And put all of his stuff on that. Couple of those Speedmaster $372 aluminum heads on sale for 35% off for about $500 total.