[Overdriven]

Okay so I think I understand where you want to go but I might be missing something with how you can get there. On one hand you say you don’t have fabrication facilities yet it seems like some of what you are thinking of requires some fabrication. While fancy stuff like cnc plasma is nice, there’s a lot you can do with a grinder, a bunch of cutoff wheels and a welder. And with today’s mail order you can get steel in shapes and sizes where you can minimize the amount of cutting. It’ll still take longer than cnc plasma but with some planning you’ll get there with similar results.

Do you want to replace the trans? You could get a big bump in power and some efficiency gains just by going with something like a modern 383 crate engine with vortec heads and fuel injection. The only thing you’d need to change would be the flywheel and damper due to internal vs external balance of the engine. Actually going LS swap with the original trans would require only a flywheel change, besides the obvious engine mounts.

Turbo LS. The big unknown for heavy, high load applications is can the engine make 200+hp more than stock for prolonged periods of time. I think the pistons are the biggest concern. People already open up the ring gaps to help the stock LS pistons live with high boost levels and cylinder temps. Add an oil cooler and a good intercooler with good airflow across it and I think the stock LS pistons will live under prolonged high load with low boost. Could always talk with a piston mfg to find out how best to setup one of their off the shelf forgings for this kind of use too.