hello again all, and hi to Jeff.
thanks for the suggestion about using a turbo on the Pontiac, Richard. I'll take it at face value - though I spent my share of time as a youngster, looking around the site for a left-handed screwdriver, or finding a 'long weight' - though I drew the line at searching for a right-angled bag of sand!

I've read a lot about how poor these old flattie straights are at breathing effectively in the first place, does anybody know how she's likely to respond.
Most to the point is that once i've satisfied myself that she's not a lemon, I'm going to need to fit her out to run on LPG, basically propane, since the cost of petrol over here is currently around 90 penceUK/litre, which i've worked out is about $6.37/US gallon. Yeah, you've really got to want to drive American over here! The propane gas is around a third of the price.
Anyway, I believe you can run a turbo on LPG, but I believe I'd have to use a sealed 'pressurised' turbo in case of blowbacks with the gas.
I think the insurance companies will back off big-time from using the gas and the turbo together, though they're generally okay with just the gas conversions.
I've found an outlet selling a book titled "Chevrolet Bill's Chevrolet, GMC and Buick Speed Manual", by one Fred Fisher; I figured you guys would know if it's worth me putting twenty bucks plus postage into it, and could you recommend anything else that'd be helpful.
thanks for your time folks,
Len