The Car craft 440/RPM head engine was in a few different articles with different cams and intakes. I think one thing they did not mention is the block must have been milled to get the compression ratio/deck height they quote on the story, but the engine was really impressive, expecially the torque numbers.
In one article, I think in Mopar Muscle, they used a Hughes cam that was simular the the Comp cam, and they mention they needed to change the valve springs out. I think they even said the power was down a bit before the changes because the Edelbrock valve springs were loosing pressure with the Comp cam?

As for the bottom end, you don't need a girdle, but main studs would be a good idea. If your on a tight budget the ARP main bolts are not too expensive and would be an upgrade over the stock bolts.

I'm not sure you mentioned connecting rods, but at a minimum, install ARP rod bolts and have the rods checked and re-conditioned. There are a bunch of afforadable aftermarket rods avaliable you may want to consider also. For example many of these rods (like 440-source) use the 7/16" ARP 2000 rod bolts.