Well I think I will give up on this one for now. To answer hemijoejr ... as I said, a street engine with a steel crank, and I think a nice build, after some research would probably cost about $6K. I have an old 340 steel crank engine that I was thinking about using as the base, but because it's original equip, I was advised by an appraiser not to use it for this.
I think it would be much more cost effective to just port the J heads, cam up and go with a single plane intake, on the Circa '92 crate 360/300. Thanks.
