from there, i personally think that a dual plane with a reasonable 4bbl carb and headers is a viable path-- despite some naysayers. is it a world beater with the 2bbl cam? no. but it's a reasonably priced path to something that's decent and all of that will directly attribute to any build going forward.
if you're going small cam, get the 340 repop. you're not building a race motor, it won't suck out too much compression, it doesn't have enough lift to need special springs or machine work, it doesn't have enough duration to need a converter or gears.