ill chime in- i dont think a magnum is a necessity for what you are doing and you will lose manifold heat and could hurt mileage,why bothr the added expense of a magnum manifold?you dont need the extra horsepower for a car you desparately want to drive the wheels off?
heres what i would do:
85 closed chamber roller cam 318 swap in a factory magnum cam swap meet alum manifold try lots of carbs to see whats best headers/big exhaust elec fan smallest stock pulleys you can find stock elec dist recurved working egr system working hot air to carb system
lockup 904 tranny built strong 2.76 rear end gears
100 shot N O for spirited driving!
I'm not thinking Magnum for the extra power... i can keep the big block if i want that. I want the extra efficiency WITH the power. Old school heads and cams are gonna fail big time in that respect. Never was a fan ov the LA head... not even the revered X-heads. The Magnum has a roller cam.
You lost me on the 904. This is a MANUAL TRANSMISSION CAR. And staying that way. I also need something longer than a 2.76 gear too... with the OD i'd like to finish around 2.0 to 2.2ish.
Heh... and who knows... there might end up being a lil blue bottle hiding behind the seat when its all said and done...