Another customary issue here is that most of the time money is only a slight object to the final goal.
Of course money is an issue when your talking about really high dollar stuff, Shelby block, SOHC, Webers, etc (eke)!
But I'm talking about the normal everyday guy trying to do his Cobra on a budget. Like in this thread where were trying to preserve capital by keeping the useable parts and upgrading where we need to. Versus, throw it all out and start over from scratch. Well, sometimes that is the best strategy, but more consideration should be given to conservation. Not all of us are Mr. Money Bag.
In MY case I pretty much did "throw it all out" and start over. Total overhaul because I didn't like the way the engine was built with high compression being the fundamental issue. BUT, I built it myself, savings thousands of dollars. I spent "enough" money where I needed to (custom pistons primarily) and saved money where I could (flat tappet cam). No way I could afford Gessford or Keith to do it for me. I could have saved even more with "off the shelf pistons", but Gessford prompted me to go custom to address the quench problem, a good call, I took his advice.