all this magnum talk here and i just wanted to take a moment and say, while i'm an advocate of the 5.9 swap and there's plenty of upside, there is also not a darn thing wrong with building out a nice little 318. not.one.thing.
a lot of it is dependent on where you're at with the 318 block, how much work that needs, and how quickly you want to have it all come together.
you could build out a nice bottom end with decent pistons, you don't have to go nuts with studs and rod bolts and stuff. top that with some 360 heads that are breathed on, stab in a white box summit special cam, snap on a swap meet dual plane and 4bbl and go rip it up with a whopping 275 hp
that would be a great daily driver combo with a little bit of flash. it's not gonna beat the world, but it's also not gonna break the bank and would be reliable.
if you backed it up with a low gear transmission and some stall it'd be a hoot to drive.
if you weren't in a hell fired rush you could probably source most all of that used, or NIB that somebody is unloading.
just some food for thought.