It's ours! Drove the car home yesterday after having to spend the night at the seller's house, due to a clogged fuel filter and the fact that I was 100+ miles from home and it was 1:00 AM. Really floats down the road and everything electrical works great. And talk about a heater, my God this thing makes my Duster's heater feel like a small animal breathing on my hand in a blizzard LOL.
Well my cousin wants to turn it into a nice custom cruiser, nothing mind-blowing but something that looks cool and can keep up with the Rustwangs and Crapmaros. Some nice 17" or 18" wheels, black paint job, bumpin' aftermarket sound system, bolt-ons to the 440 (intake, dual exhaust, maybe cam, ignition system), and suspension update (slightly larger t-bars, bigger sway bar, shocks, leaves, etc.). It's going to be more of a bad-*** one-of-a-kind cruiser than a muscle car. And once he finds a good B- or E-body for the 440 (maybe in a year or two) I was thinking of building a mild (350-400 HP) 360 to swap into the Polara along with an overdrive trans to boost gas mileage and make the car into a truly practical and enjoyable road-trip machine.
I would keep the drive-train, unless that engine blows up, no need dropping in a SB, you will definitely miss that 440 torque & be going backwards IMO, i don't think 440s are that bad on gas for what they give you in return, keep the 440, just add dual exhaust & nice wheels & tint the windows.
Good for you guys. Cool for the previous owner to let you stay at his house until you could get back on the road, too. Don't see that kind of hospitality out there much anymore.