SBE 318 basic rebuild +CAM , INTAKE, HEADS, expectations?

I don't know why were trying to make this 318 work you got a 440, at best get 318 running with minimum cost gather all the parts needed for the swap then swap, or just start the swap now and have it ready for spring.

There's nothing wrong if you got a decent running 318 and add 4bbl cam headers to it but once you want to go more then that, you need different heads and generally higher cr pistons and if going that far might as well start with a 360 core.

If you really want to stick with a sbm, I do magnum truck idea someone mentioned, test the compression, hear it run, better chance starting with a decent core.