3 1/2 months of hell only to get worse

So my heads cam intake is finally over, car is driving now only fine tuning crap like getting my throttle body elbow to stay on, which only took 1 to find, and build a bracket for the mass air to keep it in place and not suspended. So I get to driving my piecer and have maybe put a total of 5 or so miles on it since I began this journey of mine, to have the damn hood fly open at 50 miles an hour and take out my entire cowl. So I guess it will be another 3 1/2 months till it sees the pavement. Well in that 5 miles of driving I had no brakes. I am running an f303 cam with 1.7 rockers on it. Do you guys know if people running that combo are having brake problems. My brakes are instant concrete and it takes all my strength just to get it to slow down a tad, absolutely no play in them. My car also seems a lot more sluggish and unresponsive than before when I was stock. With heads, cam and intake with those rockers, should it really be that sluggish. I know with the rockers you are changing the cam from midrange power to higher but shouldnt the horsepower of the rest make up for it somewhat?

my car is a 90