How to get the most "Bang for the Buck" out of your "Restification" project...

I often get asked by various people how to get the most "bang" for the buck out of a "restification"-( Restoration / Modification ) project. There's no one generic answer, as it depends on what type of project your building. Is it going to be a daily driver, a weekend cruiser, or an all-out race car?  Or a combination of the three?  You need to be really specific and honest about what you really want. I've touched on this before but it's worth re-visiting. A guy comes to my shop and wants me to build him a 350 Chevy. He says he wants "As much power as he can possibly get for "X" amount of dollars."  "I can do that." I say. "But what are you using it for?"  "Why does that matter?" He asks. Here's why. If I'm building the engine to put in a Suburban that he's going to tow 40 ft horse trailer or a 25 ft boat with I'm going to build it to make maximum low-end and mid-range torque, which is what you need for pulling heavy loads. I don't care if it won't rev over 5,500 rpm. I'm shooting for maximum torque between 2,000-4,500 rpm. I'd use a dual-plane intake like an Edelbrock Performer and a short duration, medium lift cam to maximize torque and engine vacuum at idle to work with power accessories and a stock torque converter. Now if the engine is going in a Nova or a Camaro with a stick and low gears ( higher numeric ) or a higher-stall speed torque converter, I'm going to use a hotter, longer duration cam and a single-plane intake like an Edelbrock Torker II or Weiand Team G to make max power between 3,000-6,500 rpm. See what I'm saying? If we put the Camaro engine in the Suburban it probably wouldn't run as good as the stock engine, because were sacrificing low-end torque for top-end rush. If you put the Suburban engine in the Camaro it would do spectacular burnouts because of the massive low-end torque, but big burnouts aren't conducive to good 0-60 or 1/4 mile times, and it would probably run out of rpm before the end of the 1/4!! So building a "Max Power" 350 Chevy or anything else depends on the application. Another question I get asked is "What's the first thing I should buy?"  Again, it depends on the car. For example if you've got a late '70's Pontiac Trans-Am with an automatic- most of them had 2.41:1 or 2.56:1 gears. The single biggest performance upgrade you could make would be switching the gears to something in the 3.23:1-3.73:1 range. This would give you a stunning improvement in acceleration-easily more than 1/2 a second off your 0-60 and 1/4 mile time, without hurting fuel economy or freeway crusing rpm too much. Now, if you had a late '70's Chevy Z/28 Camaro with an automatic-they had 3.42:1 gears from the factory-I'd say get a set of shorty headers ( for ground clearance ) and good dual exhausts. If you had a '69 Mustang with a 351W with a 2bbl-( a lot of Mach 1s did ) I'd say get an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold and matching 4bbl carb. If you had a '65 GTO with a 389 and a 2-speed ST300 ( read Powerglide ) automatic, I'd say swap it for a TH350. ( ST300s have a 1.76:1 1st gear and 1.00:1 2nd. TH350s have a 2.52:1 1st, a 1.52:1 2nd and a 1.00:1 3rd. And they are the exact same length and use the same rear trans mount and driveshaft yoke! It's practically a bolt-in. ) This will give you a stunning improvement in acceleration and drivability, way more than headers or a tri-power setup would! If you had a late '80's "5.0" Mustang I'd say get a Ford SVT or Vortech centrfigal supercharger. See what I mean? Every application is different. The bottom line is do some research on what other people have done with a car like yours and read parts catalogs carefully. Edelbrock, Competition Cams, Lunati, Trick Flow Holley and other companies offer guidelines-i.e.-"Makes power from 1500-5,500 rpm." or "Needs 2,500 rpm torque converter and 3.55:1 gears" Those recommendations are usually pretty spot-on. The main thing is err on the side of caution, don't go too wild on cam timing or converter stall speed. Hope this helps. Mastermind.