Bummer of a day...

[cam.man67]

Last week I replaced the old intake manifold with a new Edelbrock aluminum one. The old one was porous and four bolts had actually rusted to it (!!!) that had to be cut off. In the process of removing the old intake I broke a chisel (it was really stuck on there!), thought I got the piece out. Put the manifold back on, got the timing set, the motor starts but sounds awful. There's a violent knocking, like something's come loose and banging around. Oh, crap. I think it might be something in the valvetrain, so I drag it down to my mechanic neighbor for him to take a look at, he gives me a call today. I come up, turns out it's in cylinder 1, and it crushed the end of the spark plug, but he can't get the piece out. Long story short, the chisel piece (which I apparently didn't remove) made its way down to cyl, 1 trashed the cylinder head, and punched a hole in the piston. I learned an very expensive lesson.

...So, it looks like its time for me to get ahold of a new motor.

I'm thinking about either a 6.2 Detroit or a 350/260, then rebuild the old motor to sell in order to recoup some of the costs.