V8 Grief, Now what do I do? Options

[Howard]

Bottom line. Seller listed it as a '383 Chev with less than 300 miles on rebuild'. Also was supposed to have 'tall geared transmission'. Neither.

Thing was running incredibly rich and using 1 qt per 100 miles. Compression all over the map. Tried the obvious things, but gave up and took to a pro who tore it down.

It's a 305 that's .030 over (310ci??). Looks like a fairly fresh rebuild with good parts, but wrong valve springs, so cam went flat. Lots of metal in oil, needs new cam, springs, rings (never seated and cylinders glazed), bearings, oil pump, valve job, and several yada yadas.

Seller is a licensed CA auto dealer, I have copy of ad showing 383 and transmission mod's, so am confident he will get stuck with at least part of the bill if I go to court. But for now:

My wrench says he can put it back together just fine , but advises I go to a crate 350 for about $1200 more. 383 is out due to 901 transmission. It would be nice to try to stick PO for a fresh 383 ($2500) tall geared tranny ($3000) and ~ $2000 for installation, but don't really want to go that far.

305, 350, or the works??

[Howard]

Seller's excuse 'I was only selling it for a friend of mine, that's what he told me' But check was payable to dealer (Harley Davidson of Fullerton) and the receipt on his stationery. Got him by the short hairs, but I'm not a knife twister, at least not yet.

The thing is faster than I am anyway, so extra HP less important than driveability. The general opinion I hear from the board is that 300hp/300lbs is the practical limit for the 901 even if you don't abuse it. Ratios still wrong, but I can also go to bigger diam rear tires. There's enough room under that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon8.gif) tail to get some from John Deere.

Will a stock 350 exceed those limits? If not I'll go with that. Want to do this now and not wait to BS with seller because...

Saddest part of story. Mechanic lost his 23 year old son last week. Don't know details, but that can't be good. He had promised before to have car ready for WCC and while I certainly wouldn't hold him to that, he insists. Then he wants to close up for a while and collect his brains. Want to let him know ASAP.