I again recommend David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower book and his cam selection videos at Powertec 10 on youtube.
For my 289 I am trying to get the money to finish, I have the cam I put in a 351W. It is single pattern, 210° @ 0.050", 256 seat to seat, 0.472" lift with the Ford 1.6:1 rockers and 109° LSA. This worked well in the 351. The formula using 127 for Ford heads indicates the LSA is a ° or so wide, but the cam is fairly quick off the seat and I am going to use 1.72:1 roller rockers at least on the intake. I will have the exhaust seats cut to 40° to aid low lift blowdown.
Witb the 1.72:1 rockers, my lift should be right around 0.500".
Dan, what are your heads, LA or Magnum?
Regarding your question about IVC, yes it does have an effect on cylinder pressure. You are in Missouri so do not experience the cold we get. To a point high cylinder pressure is your friend and is easy to deal with. You can install a water injection system which cools the combustion temperature without the hassels of EGR. A vacuum switch turns it on when vacuum drops to a preset value. At small throttle openings and high vacuum, detonation is not a problem. Run distilled water and add maybe 2% water soluable oil to lubricate things. DV has a video on this to run 14:1CR on 87 octane fuel. You can lean the mixture out benefiting fuel economy without affe ting power.
I recommend to subscribe to his videos.