493 John- I like the bench seat but I like the idea of getting weight out of it that way. I need to start looking at what can be cut out in terms of brackets and stuff.... especially for the backseat. Nobody sits in it!

Doug, thank you for the offer. I may take you up on that. It drives fine and I didn't notice any play in the front end, but I did buy LCA bushings just in case. Looking at them, they're intact... just dry. I've also never had torsion bars out of a Mopar front end before so am a bit gunshy to do them, lol

GTX Matt- yeah, honestly it's overcammed for what it is now but with more compression and substantially better heads it should do better. The converter is loose enough that it can take advantage of it. That's a good point on the intake too, a 512 would benefit for sure from a 4500 sized flange.