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??

[skline]

Well, by law the dealer is supposed to supply you with what you purchased, however, I tried something along those lines before and all they have to say is that they were unaware and were going by the original owner told them. Did you get a warranty from where you bought it? If not, then you are probably SOL. Also, You cant run a 383 in a 914 unless you run a really modified gearbox. The torque would tear the trans apart in almost any gear. I built a 383 roller for my Chevelle and it was 470+ HP with 535 pounds of torque. 901 killer. I would go for the crate 350. 1200 doesnt sound bad at all. I know I have a lot more than that in my 283 rebuild. The crate motor should give you years of service with no problems. Those are definetly 305 heads. The cool thing about the heads though, is the small chambers. I am running a set of ported 305 heads on mine because they have 55cc chambers bringing my compression up to 10.5 to 1. I also got bigger valves installed which is why the chamber is so small.