Take a bit and look through this section of the forum, and you'll see several combinations that have been discussed. We have several people here who've done it, including the guy who built the world-record holder "Dirty Bird" that you've probably seen in HPP and Pontiac Enthusiast (that would be Mr. P-body).
But there are a few common areas of agreement on 400 builds:
For street use, you don't want to go higher than 9.3:1 or so for use with pump gas. Higher SCRs can make power ONLY if you use the appropriate octane rated fuel, and they don't sell that at Starvin' Mavin's or Circle S.
Stock cast connecting rods, while reliable from the factory, are a major liability in these engines (even for the street) anymore. With the low price of forged rods you are taking a large risk by reconditioning a set of 30-year old cast rods for your new engine. Using forged rods is cheap insurance.
Stock cast cranks (nodular or Armasteel) are perfectly acceptable for any reasonable Pontiac V8 build.
Pontiac engines are notoriously easy to overcam, and it's far better to be UNDERcammed a bit rather than OVERcammed. Many a guy has been disappointed after he stuffed a too-large cam into his street Pontiac V8.
Stock cast intakes are better than aftermarket intake manifolds (with the exception of the Edlebrock Performer II, which gives the same performance but is lighter) for a streetable Pontiac V8.
D-port heads respond very well to the kinds of porting suggestions contained in Jim Hand's book on Performance Pontiac V8s.
If you want to make power, the stock cast iron "log" manifolds are deficient. You'll do better with a set of good tube headers, but unless you are trying to wring the absolute last iota of power out of the engine (most street engines don't) you'll be happier with a set of RARE cast iron headers that are replicas of the 1970 RAIII D-port exhaust manifolds.
I could go on and on, but as I say there are many 400 buildups that have been discussed, so you'd do better to find those and read them for yourself.
