The beauty of the 340 is the bore stroke ratio and the long rod loves to rev; to build one today around the standard stroke I'd probably take the rod journal down to the 2.00" (SBC size) and use a 6.200" rod and get the bobweight that much lighter. The only downside compared to a327 was the tall 9.6 deck height still makes the slugs quite a bit heavier.

I remember hitting 7800 with my W2 340 with heavy TRW slugs, an Isky solid flat tap and it was running 11.70's (hazing 70's vintage tires in 3 gears lol) over 30 yrs ago in a Dart 4 speed (no Scattershield). The fun for me with 340's were all with manual trans cars since they wouldn't fall out of a tree below around 4000-4200. Today it'd be that much easier to go 10's with a roller and much better rocker gear. I'd want to do a five speed in something really light (sub 2700 w/d) just to be more fun and a bit more streetable.

MUCH easier to go quick with a stroker....but nowhere near as thrilling