Once the converter goes in, you'll like it. I just paid $375 from Summit a couple of weeks ago. You will not believe the new found low end power from a mod not to the engine. My buddy used to turn green when I nailed it and I had wimpy 3.27 gears.
For future mods I would do is invest in some aluminum heads, you'll get bored with the ported E7s and step up later anyways. I went with ported E7s and made 265 rwhp, respectable with an AOD combo. I used a TFS #1 cam, Torker 289 intake, Mac 1 5/8s shorties and an Edlebrock 600 carb. The problem was after making around 310-320 hp at the flywheel with E7s there was little potential for further horsepower without a power adder. One thing led to another and I now have 2 strokers coming together. One is a 347 in a CNCd roller block and the other is a 355 in an early 302 block (uses a modded 351C crank destroked to 3.48"). I plan on using TFS high Ports on both engines.
I'd swap the ported stocked for some TFS TW heads, I mean you'll be running the TFS cam and TFS intake anyways...