Lots of nice parts, I would guess that the price would be some where around $6,500.00 total for the engine, and it very well maybe more. I know they went after durability and thats what the crank, rods, and pistons were for. But being for a street engine I think that it may be a bit of over kill, from the carb to the pan.
I too think that it would have made more TQ. with a smaller runner, and with smaller valves as cylinder filling efficentcy would increase. We just tried this with a set of canfield heads with a 2.10 and a set of SVO 302 heads with a 2.02 valve and the filling efficientcy of the canfields were 90 % and the smaller valve of the SVO 302 head was 92%. We even tried this with a 1.94 valve size, and it was 91%. But keep in mind that this was on a Ford engine with a high piston speed and long stroke. The canfield head was a 210 cc runner and the SVO was a 180 cc runner. This just go's to show that the smaller runners have more velocity and better cylinder filling capabilities, with smaller valves.
But back to the artical, I could see where the cost could come down some. And maybe a change of heads to something smaller, as I noticed that the HP at lower rpm's went up then down before it came back to make peak HP @ 6,200 rpm's. To me this shows the port being too large and a loss of port velocity when the valves are in the overlap position. But this could be cured by changing the centerlines and valve timing, then the use of the larger ports may be a advantage, but I don't think so with such a small CI engine. To me this engine would be over headed. I would think that the engine would have made more with a 190 cc head, or maybe even something smaller. Basically the 349 engine would get you the same results or better with less cost. I believe that you could do this kind of HP and TQ for somewhere around $4,500.00 or a bit more. But this IMO.