Wow, thanks so much for all the info.
I had not realized the actual head was different (which makes sense though). So, I basically need to somehow locate a complete unmolested 1968/69 sprint engine... sounds easy! 1BBL doesn't sound so bad at the moment! lol
I bought the car because I love the Firebirds. My dad had a bunch of first gens when I was a kid and a white 67 400 clone was the first car I ever handed him tools on... that was just over 30 years ago.
I know everyone hates this term, but the car is somewhat "rare" in it's uniqueness. I got all the PHS docs, bill of sale, trade in, original build sheet, and original title from the original owner (A lady!) to confirm the data tag and what I'm seeing on the car. It's a an April Gold TWO TONE car with a Primavera Beige painted roof and gold interior. It also had a deluxe steering wheel, redline tires, hubcaps (long gone) AND a 3 on the tree 3 spd manual trans (still in car). I like the rear axle ratio, it's a 3.55, perfect for a 5spd OD (researching that now.) I've converted my 65 Mustang to a T5 and I love it. The only way it could be cooler is if it were a Sprint.
My cars get driven, I've taken the 65 Mustang on 4 long hauls on the hot rod power tour for a total of over 10K miles. From SC the cars been as far north as Wisconsin, as far south as Florida, as far west as Texas/OK, and as far east as the Carolina coastline. I love to drive
I'd like to replace the Mustang with the Bird as that car someday (It needs A LOT to get there).
So, the backstory, this car is stupid solid. I'm originally from NY, I HATE rust, and I'm not a fan of repop paneled cars *if it can be helped*. I'm glad those parts exist to save more cars, but I prefer OEM if at all possible. The car was bought by a mom in December 1967. Around 1971 it was transferred to her daughter who drove it until 1981. It was supposedly under a carport all those years. In 1994 some dude bought it and had a TERRIBLE, and I mean TERRIBLE Maaco style paintjob done (to the original colors). That's when I believe the engine was rebuilt. Either the motor had problems, or the project stalled, but the car has sat in one of those metal containers since 1994. The guy I bought it from bought it in 2017. He couldn't get it to run right so he punted it to me. I got a good deal on it. I didn't want a 250 car, but it's what I could afford. It will need ZERO rust repair work done to the floors, trunk floor, doors, front clip, or roof. There are a few quarter sized rust bubble areas in the lower rear quarters on each side, that's it.
What I found when I pulled the head was a ridiculously clean bottom end. Like two of the pistons look like they were never fired. The reason I think that is, is it either sat for many years before someone tried to start it, or it sat for a long time and was then rebuilt, however it happened, the bottom end looked fantastic as well as the cam. However, when I pulled the head, I found that ALL TWELVE of the lifters were stuck solid and all the intake valves were very sticky (maybe from old/bad gas?). So basically 4 of the cylinders had little to no compression (which explains why it looked like a couple cylinders had never fired - they had no compression so they didn't). There was still assembly lube in the top end. So I cleaned everything up, lapped all the valves, have good movement in tall of them, and I replaced all of the lifters with ones from kantor.
I wanted to try to get it to make some noise today but I got out of work really late and my alma mater just won the college football national championship!!!