J Heads

I'd buld the lower end as you say, add the larger intake valves, and have some bowl cleanup and gasket matching done to them while they are being worked. Replace all the valves with decent stainless, they come swirl polished and back cut already. Make sure your true compression is 10:1..You'll more than likely need to either deck the block, or mill the heads to lower the volume to get that. Witht he stick, the larger intakes will help, and you can keep the rpms where it wil like them, street or strip. If you are running headers and decent pipes, you could upgrade (meaning larger) the cam a little too.