Update...
I blew the clutch that was behind the slant six. The engine was running good enough to get me to Wickenburg and back, but was not reliable enough to drive in city traffic.
I decided that rather than throw any more money at the slant six it was finally time for an engine swap. After going back and forth ever since buying the car, I finally decided to go with a built 318 poly. I found a guy in Southern California who "wrote the book" on poly motors. He will be building my motor which will be between 390 and 408 cubic inches depending on what kind of a bore is needed to restore the cylinders to round. He doesn't like going to the maximum overbore just to get bigger numbers, since it means the engine is either a throw away if it ever needs to be bored again.
He also has an aluminum dual quad manifold which is period correct. It's a beautiful looking setup and will look great under the hood.
Under the hood... well of course I couldn't just throw a new motor in the old cruddy engine compartment, so... I'm tearing into it big time. No, I'm not doing a full resto, just a real nice engine compartment and front subframe detail. I plan on stripping the firewall, inner fenders, core support, etc and bringing them back to like new appearance.
I may have bitten off more than I can chew. The engine is supposed to be done in two months. Right now it seems that I have more than two months of work to get it all back together. I have seen ads for mobile media blasting services. If I could get someone out here to strip all the parts down to bare metal that would save me a load of time and I could get busy on primer, paint and reassembly. I plan on investigating that possibility on Monday.
When I say ridicoulously powerful I'm thinking along the lines of 750 - 1000hp on pump gas
A turbo motor isn't out of the question.
The test track is 10 miles each way. It takes me across the Hassaympa River bed where you have to climb fairly steep hills to get back out. 
