Advice needed

You want to add power to the six?
Well, since we're not in the slant six forum; 1.2x0 is still zero. Hah!
What I mean is this, all the usual mods that cost at least 2Gs on a SBM and net ~40hp; when applied to a slanty will net less than half of that, and with usual 2.76/1700stall, will disappoint the crap out out of you.. So.....
Get you a 2800TC and 3.91gears,and forget hopping up the six.
The gears and TC will get you flying out of the gate with a great big smile, for less than 1G. Oh wait, you'll need a SG as well. Oh,and tires... so make it the same 2G, get some change back,and now you got some performance.
Every time I do TC and gears it's like holeeeeeeee; what just happened..
I know I know. After you do the TC/gears, the bug is gonna bite again. Then you're gonna spend another 2G on bolt-ons, and be disappointed in the meager performance improvement. So then you're finally gonna take the engine apart and pump up the compression, to put in a bigger cam. After another 2G,( or more) you will be up to plus 30 or maybe 40 hp.
So now after ~7Gs spent you got about factory 273-2bbl performance.
For half that you couldda put a turbo on the /6 and nothing else and had more than 273-2bbl performance. Oh wait, you'll still need a SG and tires, lol. lots and lotsa tires.
As to the engine;Here's the deal;
Stage I might be a bigger carb,a free-breathing exhaust, and a tune up which might net you, I'll guess 12 hp at 3500rpm which with 2.76s is ~38mph. But at 1700 stall, this stage means about nothing.
Stage II might be a camshaft and might get you 10hp@3800, which is 41mph now, but at 1700 stall still means nothing, maybe/probably less than nothing.
Stage III might be bringing up the compression and might be good for 8hp at 3800, still 41mph; but now power at 1700 is back up to the stock number.
So, as you can see power at stock stall, hardly changes. You need a higher-stall TC to change this.
And the power peak increases in mph, so you need bigger gears to bring the power down to a useful MPH to be able to get to it sooner.
So, since you need a TC and gears no matter what....logically it follows that you might as well do that first.
The 2800 really woke my 225 up. 3.91s was not necessary, but it sure made it fun. But I don't think 3.55s would have been enough. So if 3.91s scare you, 3.73s are up the middle.