I did this recently. 1979 454 in a longbed 2wd. Plan was a torque motor. One year ago and doing fine.
Isky roller 208/218 114LCA with about .500 lift (EFI coming). Torque build. Makes good power off idle, 1600 cam starts noticably helping, 2200 strong and flat torque curve which peaks at 2900RPM. Also chose full roller rockers, ARP bolts etc. Did not skimp on parts.
Used stock Oval port heads, could have re-used the peanut ports because I am not needing much over 3500rpm, but these heads flow strong up to 5K. My engine builder, Chuck McDaniel of C&M in Tonganoxie KS did all the work. He is the big block man, builds racing motors for the monster trucks etc.
Currently Edlebrock dual-plane intake. Edlebrock Pro Flo4 coming soon. New vaccum advance distributor, oil pump, etc.
Thorley Tri-Y headers. Expensive but they fit nice, make great torque, thick & quiet, ceramic coating really keeps the underhood heat down. Quality part. Also sprung for 2.5" SS duals, Flowmaster 50's the longest/quietest, turned out behind rear wheels. I'm old and don't value the noise. Sounds great under load though.
After the build I took it to a dyno ($75 for 3 pulls) to get a baseline for the build, went from a 205-250 stock 380 (?at crank?) to 260hp/390@wheels which I was told figuring 20% losses with the manual drivetrain works out to about 325/450 at crank. Pulls strong and super happy 2200-2900rpm. I am geared a bit high so I "need" to drive it at close to 80mph...
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