Performance starts with heads. Use 2.9 valves and pocket port the heads. Jose has a regrind from Delta Cams for the cam that's suited to 5 speed Alpines. Pruett's book on the V6 suggests using gutted Ford hydraulic lifters. I bought 2.9 springs, but if I redo the heads, I'll be looking at finding a set of behive style springs and titanium retainers.
You can get your rocker shafts rebuilt with higher ratios by rockerarms.com. Ideally you would want to set up the rocker arms with perfect geometry. For a primer on the subject, check out eatonbalancing.com. You'll need to have some custom length pushrods made up to perfect the cam/rocker geometry.
By the way, be sure you teach youself about ZDDP. These engines are notorious for eating up their valve trains, and ZDDP, a high-pressure oil additive, will help slow down that process.
The 80's truck block is the recommended one because the cam has larger journals and you can grind a cam with higher lift. For the Alpine conversion you want the truck oil pan, oil pump pickup and the oil pump bolt/stud that the oil pump pickup mounts to. Everything except the bolt/stud is available new from rockauto.com.
If you have access to a good machine shop, get a 2.9 crankshaft and have it ground to fit the 2.8 block. The result will be zero-decked pistons – a good thing - not because of the higher compression ratio, but because of the quench/squish. Portland Engine Rebuilders has done this before and Ted mentioned it to me when I brought my heads.
I bought a 79 Capri distributor from rockauto.com, compatible with Duraspark II. I'll have to get it recurved and figure out where to get a replacement vacuum advance with the right amount of advance built in. You can check out reincarnation-automotive.com for information about recurving Duraspark distributors. I have a welder and I'll probably attempt to do the work myself.
There is a web site that describes how to adapt Ford 3.8 EFI to a 2.8 -
http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/2_8_FuelInjection.html
Looks like the hard part is running the fuel lines.
I have a 4.0 crank and a spare truck block. The goal is to try swapping the crank into the block using Dodge 3.7 V6 pistons, making a 3.4, but that comes after getting the car running. Also, I have the main cap bolt/studs and the windage tray. I'll see if I can fit that up to the new 2.8/3.4 assembly.
