Richard,

I feel honored to receive personal attention from you. The engine build you describe would be very impressive indeed and is in step with your previous advice to others allowing them:"to come galloping in like Caligula, lopping off heads and taking no prisoners."

I'm tempted to follow your advice to the letter as I trust it, however in your absence, I have already purchased or acquired some other parts. Hopefully they will be useful in a slightly modified build, although I am not against cutting my loss on some items and purchasing something different.

My goal has been to build an impressive street machine with very good street manners and be somewhat fuel efficient. I felt like I should focus on torque instead of horespower, but did not want to go to a stroker at this time. I already owned an Edelbrock 1406 600cfm carb which I understood would help with the mileage but not particularly give the most horsepower. I also just purchased an Edelbrock 2716 Vortec Performer EPS instead of the RPM because I heard it was better at producing low end torque. I also just ordered a Comp Cam 08-410-8 260H, not sure what all the specs mean, but had a few reccomend it.

I have not decided what pistons to go with, If I reach a comfort level on the 12cc over the 18cc dish as not producing unneeded detonation when balanced with the other components, then I will go that way if you suggest. Do the 12cc ones you linked to with the 4 way valve relief have sufficient flat area in the quench are to be the most effective?

The heads are genuine GM 906, very low mileage, look almost new.
I have not cc'd the heads, but am making up a kit to do it.

So, Do rods typically need replaced? The remanuf. ones you linked to would also fit my 350?

As well as the crank and bearings, although I would get the new one for the 1 piece oil seal which my block has.

I appreciate your direction on the block. I'm planning a trip to the machine shop soon. I'm not sure what order I need to do with the machine shop other then what you mentioned.
Is this the proper order? Seems like a lot of trips back and forth from the shop if I want to do the most I can myself.
Drop off bare block
Have cylinders checked to determine what bore size is needed or should I push for the .030 over?
Purchase new pistons
Machinest bores depending on new actual piston size in hand
Bring block home
Assemble bearings, crank, and 1 rod and piston, and check piston top to deck on each corner using same rod and piston.
Take block back to machinest
Have decked to square with crank and for proper calculated deck height for desires squish.
Bring block home and start assembly process.

I have a lot of other details I haven't got to yet, some you already mentioned, but I wanted to get the basic plan worked out first.

Thanks
Rollie