I look at it this way. I ran 9.80's back in the late 1980's with TRW pistons, stock crank, stock recon rods with good bolts, and ported 906 heads. If I wanted 500 horsepower or less I know I could easily do it with a stock crank build. With the nice after market rods available now I would never spend a cent doing what we used to do to stock rods. Figure out YOUR budget and how fast YOU want to go and have fun with your project. Some of the slower builds are the funnest builds. If possible plan on aluminum heads as there a LOTS of budget minded options out there. Sure beats spending money on old cast iron upgrading them and they flow a lot better too.