350 or 383??

[chevychic]

Hey all,

My husband found his jeep (1992 Wrangler. White with black soft top, all stock but in great shape. $3500)
So my truck can finally be semi-retired. My neighbor has been hanging onto a 350 for me for when I'm ready to clear out my basement and have some room to start tearing into it. My plan is to build it up while I drive my truck, get it finished, then drop it into my truck. The 350 that's in my truck will get freshened up and dropped into the jeep. We're talking a long term plan here
So my question is, what is the best way to go with my money?
I'm really thinking of taking this 350 block and building it up to a 383. My dad has some heads that he'll give me if I can just get them down here. I don't know the specs, but they're supposedly very good, expensive heads. I've been pricing 383 kits and am not sure what a good price range is for the results I want. I want a lot of low-end torque with good power at higher rpms. I've been pricing out kits that deliver the best power between 1200 and 5200 rpms. The kit I ran across in summit racing is just short of $1800 add that to the machining cost, cam kit, intake manifold, new carb and all the other goodies I'm going to need (seal/gasket kits, vacuum lines, hoses, etc) and my cost for a build up is looking pretty spendy.

Would it be a better option just to refresh this block, keep it a 350 and get a better cam kit with manifold or would I eventually just wish that I had spent the money on the build up kit and go 383? On average, what am I looking at spending for a good 383 build up vs refreshing the 350 and going with a bigger cam?
Everything will be done by me, with the help of another board member as needed, except for the machining of the block of course.

This truck will eventually see some light hauling, nothing extreme though. I would still like to have reasonable gas mileage.

Any input, suggestions, links, opinions, etc are appreciated as always