building a street engine
If the crank is o.k. use it.If you are doing a full tilt rebuild,then get yourself a 383 kit and take advantage of the cubes and low end torque. I prefer flat top pistons over domes,do some research on "Quench". The rule of thumb is no more than 9.5 to 1 with iron heads and 10.5 to 1 with aluminum .These specs are for premium gas,and you will need to check you dynamic comp.ratio to make sure you are on the safe side of things.The cam you chose to run will affect the "running comp.ratio "or dynamic ratio.The type of piston,deck height ,chamber size and gasket will give you your static comp.. Useing modern cam grinds will allow you to make excellent power ,while retaining a streetable low comp.ratio,and allow you to run on pump gas.You may want to have the heads checked for cracks between the center cylinder exhaust ports,they did like to crack ,and I don,t think that they have hardened valve seats either. the newer vortecs make a nice street head and can be had cheap.