Ya we had to tube the whole thing to keep it from bending and it allowed us to move the engine back and down and then did a latter bar set up on a ford 9 inch.
Last year we blew the 327 (It was a great engine for high revs) and are in the process of building a 388 Stroker Iron Eagle heads and a 600 lift cam.
There was talk of a big block but we thought it would bend the frame (Even with the tubes)
But a Pinto with a 302.... Thats an interesting sleeper