360 build ????s

Find a different machine shop.

So I was confused before, but now Im really lost. This 360 is assembled? But needs to be torn down to sleeve one cylinder? Or, What exactly does this $250 buy?

Going back to the teener, which seems to be running just fine,tho a little underpowered, right?
Seems to me, if you start the 408 project now,the short block will be done before winter(which around here starts in September). That gives you 3 to 4 months to get the rest of it sorted out, a month to assemble it, a month to install it, and a month to drool over it, and then its next spring.GO TIME!
I think I could suffer the teener a little longer. I know I could. Especially having a a $1500 fatter bank account.Ima thinking thats a real good start on a nice pair of heads.
Maybe use the money for rear-end upgrades. Like an 8.75,with 3.55s. Thats something the 408 will need anyway.Or brakes. You know you are gonna need brakes! Or go over the chassis and get it into shape. That 408 will need frame connectors, HD springs, HD brakes HD everything.Well you get the idea. If you start on the chassis now,then by fall, you will have her whipped into shape, and you will have been so busy that you wont even have noticed that the teener was lazy. This way everything will come together by next March, and you can enjoy the 408 ALL next summer.That 408 can get you into a whole heap of trouble in the blink of an eye.
Well, thats what I would do.