I'm swapping in an L98 into my 72 pickup and thought this would be a good time to do some moding to it (I have a few weeks until my headers get back to me).

What should I do. What are the most effective mods. It will already have long tube headers on it and a cold air intake. I was thinking of removing the intake manifold to do some cleaning/polishing (its a mess right now).

After doing some reading, it looks like an adjustable fuel pressure regulator and guage might be a good thing. I also have a chip that is set up for a 160* thermostat, so I could do that at the same time. Is porting the intake to match the intake gaskets worth the time? Anything else I should do while I have it apart?

I don't want to change camshafts at this time.

 

You might as well port the plenum while you have everything apart. Lots of restrictions in there, you'll get much better throttle response.