Everything you want to do depends entirely on how you intend to drive it. What are you going to use this for, daily driver, weekend warrior, race car, whatever. If you want a daily driver with dependability, build it conservative by rebuilding it using factory specs. If you want a weekend warrior, go with a good performance cam, carb, headers, ignition, etc. Seeing as how your sig. mentions that it is fully tubbed, I am assuming you are going to stick some "fat" tires under there and are leaning towards the warrior side.

The 454 I ran in a 32 Ford I had, was built on the conservative side for mileage and dependability. I was able to get 12 mpg during the week, and during the Nostalgia drags was able to click off mid 10's. Yes it was on the bottle, but IMO you can not beat the cost per HP factor.

Just my 2 cents worth.