Motor Recommendations??

[tjpresley1978]

I recently picked up a clean 72 SWB last weekend with a 305 (originally a 350 truck). The truck was his daily driver so it runs decent but has major PS, trans and oil leaks.

My plan long term is to do a full restore and drop an LS2 in some day. But for right now I'd like to keep the budget small. I plan to lower it with drop spindles in front and coils out back, black matte paint for now BUT the big thing is the motor.

I have dreamed about this day from back as a child that I would get an old truck and drop an engine in it with a HUGE cam and 3" exhaust so you could hear it coming from a mile away. It doesn't even need to be that fast...just sound like a beast and boil the tires off.

I'd like to keep the spend on the motor in the $1-2k ballpark if at all possible.

Is there a way to cam up the 305 and put a few extra goodies on it (intake, carb & headers) to make it sound like a beast. I've heard lots of bad things about trying to cam up a 305 and being a waste of money.

Would it be better to find an old 350 block, get it machined and rebuilt and install a cam and all the goodies on that?

Would it be a lot more expensive to try and make a stroker motor out of the 350 instead?

So what's the best bang for the buck to make the truck sound like a beast and boil the back tires off and is that even a possibility with there being an existing 305 in there now and a budget of $1500-2000?