408 in CA
the good thing about big cubes is you can run a "small" cam and still make great power all through out the powerband due to the extra CI. some decent heads, a smallish cam, and the big cubes will make a great daily driver. but looking as your pretty much starting in the performance mod area i'd look into a s/c. can be used with a stock setup and be completely smog legal if you get the CARB approved blowers. the 408 alone will run you over 4k, then another 1500 at least for some decent heads, 400 for cam, 300 for springs, ect. it gets expensive.
