If I were building a sbc 283 I would find a pair of old 1.94 fueler heads, or a good modern head with 1.94/1.60 valves and a chamber around 64cc. The later high flowing heads will not work as well with their large runners, as they're just too much for a small bore engine. I'd also go with pistons around 10 or 10.5:1 cr to maximise the combustion, but still run on pump gas. I'd bore it .030", unless the stock bore was great, and I'd leave it with just a hone then. For a cam I'd do something similar to the old Duntov 30-30 cam with solid lifters, and Comp Cams sells a reproduction of it. I'd put a good 650-700cfm carb and open plenum intake on it, and call it good.
This is similar to the setup I ran in my '55 gasser back in 1970, along with a Muncie M22, and 3.90 gears. My '55 would lift the front wheels with a 5,000 rpm launch, and beat a lot of BBC powered cars on the street back then.
I've been thinking BBC for my next build, but now you've got me excited about a small bore SBC!