440 build for a tow rig/"muscle" truck?

Stephen Mulkey said
That is a clean little tow rig you got there and i believe the 440 will help but i have had a few big block motorhome's and towed trailers with jeeps and found the hill climbing abilities to be lacking.
I ended up picking a gear for the powerband of the engine and kept it there. Just my thoughts but a Cummings transplant would be the ultimate change up.
P.S. I forgot about the muscle part. It would take a few pounds of hundreds, but it could still work.

I agree I would love to put a Cummins in this truck but it would take some money to do it the way I'd want (12-valve and NV5600). If I was being the most practical I'd just swap in 4.10 gears and drive a bit slower when unloaded but... I don't want to lmao I've been looking for an excuse to build a big block for a while now. I wouldn't mind having a healthy (wear-wise) spare 360 either and the one in the truck would make a good builder as it likely has the thicker cylinder walls being a 1972 block.

I know pretty much all the motorhome and truck 440s were very low compression so I'm thinking bringing that up to at least a true 9.0:1 from 7.8-8.0:1 will make it pull better and possibly save a bit of fuel. And the extra airflow from the heads and modern cam will boost the mid-range torque and stretch out the powerband so it can rev higher. One downside of the current 360 is the stock 2-bbl cam, doesn't really pull much past 4000 RPM which limits my speed a bit in 2nd gear.