seeing that caverous empty hole stirs the memory of 3 years ago when i pulled the 258 out, refreshed it, and reinstalled it.the car was actually given to me because of a knocking rod. at the time, i also had a 1976 hornet with the same engine, but it smoked a bit, so i ported the 79 head, put it on the 76 block and created a "frankenstein" that i've put about 35k on. it has been mostdependable in response to denny w- you've reminded me of discussions i've had with a local drag racer who raced a number of years with an american running a 390 he claimed only used a mild cam and headers and ran in the 12's,then he added nitrous and dropped into the low 10's. he quipped once that they laughed at him as he came to the line, -once. i have a picture of that car with the front wheels 2 feet off the ground at launch. he also said that any 6 or v8 will bolt right in as long as it's amc. i think my 350 is going to slip right in with only odds ands ends to wrangle with, as you suggested