i have a 74 dodge dart 4 door custom... three on the tree. basic everything manual steering manual brakes everything.. 71/4 rear.... i have the 2bbl setup conversion waiting its proper place on my engine.....which is a 198 cid... what modifications are in line for a street/race car but more so street..that would help me get started besides motor work.... and also motor work. and what kind of questions or expectations would i ask of a machine shop for motor work? and why are the 198 motors so desired?

depends how far you want to take it.. if you want your (naturally aspirated) slant see (lets say) 16's in the 1/4 you would have to improve literally everything. Your looking at combining high flow exhaust with your new intake setup, increasing your spark (good article on HEI ignition on this site), increasing compression ratio, changing to a numerically higher rear-end ratio, tuning your advance, carburetor jets, lightening your car etc... The theory is endless..

The best approach for someone unfamiliar with slants is to set a goal such as 1/4 mile ET, and then hunt down an old MOPAR performance catalog and use their parts combo guide at the start of the Slant 6 chapter and compare parts and procedures to the 1/4 ETs and then decide if its really worth it :p

If your willing, turbo charging isn't really that far off of a concept and does wonders to an otherwise stock engine..

I'm pretty much in the same boat as you are and i'm looking into building a Megasquirt fuel injection induction system and then turbocharging.