[curtis73]

Ok, I'll try to keep the description short, but its a long story.

I have a 73 Impala station wagon. I bought it this spring with 58k original miles on a 454. It had been sitting for 7 years and the owner got it running for me without priming the oil first. So, at about 60k the cam lost a few lobes. To minimize downtime I bought a 454 longblock as well as a comp cam, edlebrock intake, valve springs, lifters, etc. I built the "new" 454 and swapped them out.

The "new" 454 was from a machine shop locally. It was originally purchased by a guy who shortly afterward got transferred to the UK for work and he sold it to me still in shrink wrap. The good news is I got a good deal on it. The bad news is that since I bought it secondhand, I have no warranty.

So, with the "new" 454 in the wagon, I broke in the cam at fist idle for 20 minutes then drained the oil and changed the filter. Took it for a light 100-mile trip and it lost most of its oil pressure. So I drained the oil and it looked like metallic paint. Turns out the rebuilders used not only the wrong pushrods, but they were mix and match pushrods from mopar applications, BBC applications and one from something unidentified. The non-hardened rods shredded on the guideplates and must have destroyed the bearings. There were little piles of fine metal dust at the base of the rocker studs. I cleaned it up as much as possible, replaced the pushrods, and flushed with clean oil several times. It runs fine, but at hot idle it only makes about 5 psi.

So here are my options as I see them, but I'm on the fence and can't decide.

1) Pull the performance parts off the "new" 454 and install them on the 60k original 454

2) Reman the original 454 using the performance parts in the assembly

3) Pull the bearings out of the "new" 454 and replace them and run it risking the shavings in all the nooks and crannies.

Despite having much experience with "building" engines, I've never attempted a lower end. I usually have the machine shop assemble the rotating assembly and then I do cam and heads. I'm willing to do it, but my toolkit lacks the good calipers and precision measuring that might be required.

Any opinions from other builders?