I guess for a fairly stock import that is pretty good. I have a '51 Chevy myself, you should be able to find a pretty good old chevy in your area for a pretty good price also, to put in a crate engine in these cars you'll need all new drivetrain including the tranny and rear end ( engine of course ), the old torque tube would snap and the tranny has to be changed cause it is probably too light for a SBC ( small block Chevy ) and it only works with the torque tube rear end, and would probably need to clip it ( new front suspension and steering ( new front clip ) such as mustang II IFS, that is a lot of work, that's why I would suggest keeping the old drive train and hopping up the engine with headders and somthing like a 3 1bbl or 2 3bbl carb intake manifold which these parts you can still get, I went this route and kept the original 235 str8 6 with the original powerglide automatic, sounds nice with the Thrush glasspack I added.