I would run either the Holly 390 4-barrel, or a Holley 350 2-barrel myself if running a holley. However if I had to buy new, I would look into a throttle body EFI conversion over a carb

Your right, changing the exhaust you loose the carb heat with is helpful in the winter.

I have run vehicles with no carb heat and headers in the winter. I ended up ditching the electric choke for a manual choke to keep it running right in really cold weather.

The problems we face today can not be addressed at the same level of intelligence we were at when we created them - Albert Einstein Or with the same level of $ - Me