Has anyone ever put some money into their 250 and got decent HP out of them? If so what did you do? I currently have the stock 250 in my truck with the granny 4 speed transmission (I think)

. It has the transmission with L, 1, 2, 3 & R. The truck runs great right now so I decided to do everything else (paint, lowering kit, rims & interior) first and then focus on my engine/drive train. My plan all along was to build a mild 350 and switch the truck to an automatic tranny. The more I drive my truck I really enjoy the manual transmission. It's not a daily driver so I don't have to worry with switching gears everyday. Then all of a sudden last night I got to thinking. How cool would it be to have a truck that sounded great when idling, ran real good and had a little bit of "get up and go" (Not something out running every car on the street, just decent power). Only to tell people you had a 250 under the hood. Is there things you can do to these engines to make that happen? It's just a thought.