Procan,

I went through this same thing about 4 years ago, the difference was that I HAD a good 3.2 in a complete 87 parts car and I HAD a set of RS pistons and cylinders for my 2.7.

I ended up selling the 3.2 and building my 2.7 except that I went with JE 9.5:1 pistons shimmed to 9.8:1. I am running ModS or DC 40 cams, MSD and these give a nice flat torque curve, I can share my dyno results. I put on webers, it works great and has got me 2 class wins in solo and time attack.

What would I do differently?

Twin Plug. The common wisdom on this is outdated. I would go distributorless like I did on the vageen racer using the EDIS setup and MegaJolt and you can do this for under $1000 including machining. Distributorless is way, way better than points or MSD.

Zenith carbs. These are fine if you don't already have webers. These are better built carbs.

If twin plug, then higher compression.

If you change your mind on the 3.2, I will be selling the 133,000 mile 3.2 in my 84 shortly. It runs great, just leaks oil out of all the usual suspects. The bottom end is fine and all leak downs less than 8%. I'm asking $4,000, but you could sell all the CIS stuff and be sitting pretty.

Please keep posting on your engine buld. I love these kind of threads.

Did you write this up somewhere? This would be an interesting thread for the Engine Rebuilding Forum.