low mileage original 350/4BBL.. rebuild or replace?

[gintaras]

Hello! I have a low mileage '72 C-10, Highlander

This truck was brought back from Houston TX where it lived it's life hauling the family camper on camping trips. This truck has only 68k miles on it, and there is no rust other than a small dime size on the passenger door jamb.

Now, as we all know, in 1972 these motors had very low compression and 170 measly horsepowers..

I have already rebuild the Rochester, but it is still a little unreliable, starts great, but is hard to start after it is warmed up. I also noticed a lot of carbon buildup in the manifold when I removed the carb for a rebuild.

So.. I think I already know the answer to my question, but I would like to get some input from those of you who know best. My dream would be to put in a late model LSx, but right now I am trying to be a bit frugal, and I think that I would rather rebuild the original 350, freshen it up, and pull some power out of it with a cam, heads, and carb/intake combo.

I loojk forward to your opinions.. oh, another reason I am leaning towards freshening up the motor is because of the low mileage and I would like to keep it "numbers matching" like the thread poll we have going here.

THanks!