I'm assuming the op is budget minded as he keeps talking about cost. I know people say throwing on a turbo is cheap, but almost all of the budget builds I have seen have cost over $1500 and many more man hours.
What else are you going to get for $1500? All I can think of is a junkyard engine with the usual bolt on goodies and a fresh gasket set. If the OP is satisfied with that, a running 440/413/400 for 500 bucks can still be found. May be a smogger era engine but if it's good running then add a full gasket kit, the "big" summit cam and a set of summit headers. Used aluminum intake of your choice, recurve the stock distributor and by the time you add the other stuff like carb, fuel pump, tune up parts, etc you might be able to squeak it in at 1500 bucks. Would probably make 400hp and perform pretty good in an a-body. May burn a little oil but should be a good runner. However next HP step up from there would be costly, as in a full rebuild, aftermarket heads, etc.
