Racingjunk Forums - Pontiac x body build up all pontiac 400ci thoughts ?

I am going to be building the pontiac 400ci up that is in the 73 ventura that was a bad ass race car at one time with a transbreak 400 trans manual reverse valve body with a 2800 stall convertor connected to a 9" ford with 4.10 gear and 3 link with adjustable coil overs .The car went low 10's (I was told) with a stroker motor .Now I am looking at the motor that is in the car now that I recieved it with - pontiac 1970 400ci / #17 casting heads / the race style (a stahl bolt pattern) headers 2" primary 3.5" slip on collector (too big I know, but came with the car ) edelbrock performer intake connected to a proform 650 carb .This combo feels like 14's or even slower when your driving it , so if I take it out I would like to go into the direction of more power for street strip application . In the past had sbc strokers that ran low to mid 11's in street strip cars and trucks ,but wanting to keep the pontiac all pontiac - any ideas for power from stock items that are able to be done on the dreaded budget will be helpfull , I have noticed buying the aftermarket aliminum heads will be a obvious help - so if tax refund is able that may be the last thing to get purchased .Of course those pontiac strokers put out some awsome #'s too .Thanks for input I have experienced pontiac builds in the past and they can get tricky even with a poor head choice can kill your compression down to 7.5 to 1 : no power there ! http://s1358.photobucket.com/albums/...view=slideshow