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[Lennie]

Girlish, your opening statement about performance and longevity is bang on. Any external work you can do will only provide marginal gains, but will reduce the life of internal components. If you are embarking on performance modifications start on the inside first. Roller big end and steel con rod should be the very first things on a very long list of expensive internal modifications.... Otherwise your quest will end in tears.

[simon]

I've done exactly this with my 350. Ported the head, put on a bigger carb, put in a higher comp piston, put in our hosts improved cams and a homemade free flow exhaust system. As a consequence it has considerably more snap than a standard 350 (I have access to two others for comparison). I don't think any thing I've done will negatively effect the longevity although perhaps taking full advantage of the extra power might.