Deciding on replacement intake (318, details in post)

That’s an awesome way to put it :D

It doesn’t…but I’m open to ideas for that to happen if it’s viable.

4 spd and 3.91 currently
the 4 gear cog box and 3.91's are about what i would consider the limit for a regularly street driven car so you're doing good there.

you just need to understand that it's going to have a narrow peaky power band is all.

you can get some compression by swapping heads and running a thinner headgasket, but those are kind of band-aids. the best solution is pistons and machine work. which means really, you should probably just get a 360.