I think my 727 is fried. Now I'm at a crossroads...

No difference in build but there can be issues with the crank not being drilled for the pilot bearing, but there are ways around that so if you proceed with the manual install, you won't hit a "nope, got to put an auto back in" situation.

What is the engine now and is it rebuilt?
That makes me feel better about it.

The engine is a mild 440. I don’t know the build specs, and I’ve been wanting to rebuild it for some time now so that I’ll know exactly what it is and that it was done right. Or least I’ll know who to blame if something goes wrong.