Hey all sorry for the late response. Had to get some surgery on my back and they've been keeping me locked up doing tests and whatnot. Looking like I either have MS or some other sort of brain cooties (already confirmed my 7th mild traumatic brain injury) going on. Plus the moment I got back that flu came through and knocked our family into oblivion! Hoping once this passes things will calm down.
BigNate, awesome on the Willy! And I hope that truck turns out to be a good runner! Well our checkbook is kinda light these days but soon enough it'll be back to project time! It sounds like we both have the fun-times penchant for building a vehicle!
Olbiker - I do already have a TBI 383 in the Suburban, and while it's an incredibly strong runner, I feel it's more of a suitable engine for our Wagoneer. I've seen some big motors, pike the Chevy Performance 502, or the Nelson Racing Engine 572's or 632's. Great engines, all of them - but if I wanted to throw down for a crate motor it would be a Nelson Racing 355ci twin turbo daily driver series. I know the 502's are neat but as Butch said, they are spendy. Last time I saw a true drop in crate 502 was about $13k. I can find a '70 500ci motor, freshen it up and throw a new cam in there w/ some head porting, graft in a good TBI, make everything fit together for less than $13k, have a motor that outperforms the 502 and have enough left over to gas her up and take the wife to dinner in it!
And trust me I enjoy the convenience of a bolt n go engine setup, it's less hassle and fewer white hairs to contend with. Often the warranty alone makes it all the more worthwhile. But I've been dying for a good project and this one seems like a lot of fun! It's gonna take a long time, no doubt, but in the end when I'm done scraping the grease out from under my nails and take it for its first run - I know the satisfaction will be entirely worth it.
Plus, just to add to that, my good friend is going to be helping me with this project, and he has a AMC 401-powered dune buggy in the works that I'm going to give him a hand with. So through many future beers, late nights and tons of Gojo, my friend and I will be having fun. I'll start a new thread with pictures and progress of both vehicles for all the AR member's enjoyment & to help educate others as we educate ourselves!