The pre vortec was not a huge power house, but could be better if some of the work u had stated. A gear change is the best bang for the buck. Your 350 should see max TQ around 2800-3000 if I can recal. I had a friend that had one years ago. I believe it was an 94. He ended up replacing the 350 with a factory crate 454 and was much happier in his ability towing his boat. I think the swap is relatively straight forward. Just a thought, otherwise gearing, because all of the bolt ons need to have the internals to match up, which requires the engine to be pulled anyway.