Brainstorming Ideas for 400-450 hp 360 Build

Can you spend $2000 on cylinder heads? That's where you want to put your money.

Do you know the condition of the 360 you got? If the cylinder bores are in good shape you could just keep the stock bottom end and put heads, cam, intake etc although the compression will be limited by the factory pistons. If not you'll need an overbore, hone, perhaps a square-decking if you want to build an engine with quench (it's nice but not needed). Either recondition/resize factory rods with new bolts or get aftermarket rods, or leave them alone if you aren't going over 450-ish HP.

I built a 425-ish HP (would be closer to 450 if I swapped the 1 5/8" shorty headers for proper long-tubes) 360 using a bone-stock 5.9L Magnum short block from the junkyard out of a 2000 Ram 2500, didn't replace anything except the rod bearings. Bolted on a pair of ported Edelbrock aluminum heads with Cometic head gaskets and head studs (9:1 compression, she's waiting for some boost!!), got a custom-grind hydraulic roller cam from Racer Brown, port-matched Performer RPM intake manifold, Hedman shorty headers.

Haven't had it down the 1/4-mile or run on a chassis dyno yet but my previous 360 made around 330 HP and this one pulls WAYY harder past 3500 RPM all the way to 6000. Still has excellent torque and drivability below that RPM as well, pretty much right off idle. Custom-grind cam FTW!