Give Tom a call at the following site. He is long time Pontiac racer who deals with the older engines. He will tell you what you need to know.
http://www.wilhiteauto.net/about.htm

You can always put a later model bellhousing in if you are sticking with a manual transmission can't you? So we are not much help on the older engines or GMC's. Now if you want to build a later model engine, we can really help. Joe