(No one has yet answered my question.
While all of you are mostly giving good answers in response the fact still remains we don't know diddly about what he has or is wanting to do. That will depend on what will work better for him.
Ed.)
Like Ed said we know nothing about your engine. You could have many different sbc's and freeing up HP could be different in each one of them. A street engine compared to an all out drag engine could be different. An engine combination could have different variables. We would need to know everything about the engine,from carb to pan,to give a calculated answer. Different carb jets,spacers,oils,rocker arm ratios,valve springs,crank scrapers,headers pipe sizes,cross over pipes,etc etc the list goes on and on. Its hard to guess,but a dyno or chassis dyno is the best way to figure things out.
Staying with one engine and knowing how to produce more HP is an awsome thing. Small cubes can surprise a lot of racers!