I think for the majority of us (especially myself) cost is always a factor. When I was doing customer cars, the people who came in and didn't care how much it cost were few and far between (I think I had 2).

Even for the most "hands-on" of us, we all have our stregnths and weakness. I know of very few people who can do everything in house. Personally I can figure things out and fabricate, I enjoy assemblying engines and making things work together. (I know how to do machine work, but don't have the equiptment as I'm a mechanic, not a machinist). Other people may do upholstry or paint and body. Of course the more we can do for ourselves the cheaper the project will become.

Regardless of how much we spend on a project or engine or whatever there are certain things that need to be done to do it right. In the case of building a performance engine (especially one that is targeted to make a HP per cubic inch or more), certain things must be done to acheive that and make the engine live longer than 1 pass.

It dosen't matter if your rich or poor, if the engine needs big valve heads or a better intake or higher compression etc etc to make the power, that isn't going to change. I mentioned a few ways to do big valve heads in my post, but it dosen't mean that someones not going to find a set of good used units on E Bay, a swap meet, or from the neighbor down the street who's cash strapped. Bottom line isn't what they cost, it's a matter of if they will work and if the engine really needs them to make the HP levels desired.

If cost is not an object, I can pick up the cataloge, take the parts to the machine shop, assemble everything and build an impressive engine. If I'm doing it for myself and time is not a major factor, I will shop around, look at used parts (reconditioning them if/as necessary) and build an equally impressive motor for a lot less money. For me saving the money is important, but I also take a lot of pride in being able to do it. Regardless of which approach I take, I will still need the same parts no matter which method I use to collect them.

Going back to our stregnths and weakness (and the billfold sure fits in there) there are always alternatives, but they may be limited by what you want the final outcome to be. In this case the major limiting factor is making 375 streetable HP out of a 327. Doing that will drive what part have to be used, not how they are aquired.

PS thanks for the tip on the oil pump Streets (something that will definatley be filed away for future use).