AJ's Opinion; what size SBM do I need

There no replacement for displacement, it costs the same to build a 360. You can bla bla bla all you want but a 360 core is where I would start.

True but people only look at static displacement not the more important and more accurate dynamic displacement aka a running engine. Eg. a 440 making peak power at 5500 rpm with say 90% VE displaces 1088640 cubic inches per minute or as we normally call it 630 cfm and a 318 would displace that much air at 7610 rpm. Rpm is basically adding more displacement. A 220 cid engine would need two revolutions to do the same job as a 440 would do in one revolution per period of time like a minute aka "rpm".