Seeing the beauty of the conversion by sssuch was enough to drive me over the edge. This '69 has been sitting around minus it's 383 for a couple of years. The 383 spent some time in my '68 Camaro and now it powers my '72 El Camino. If I had a good sbc sitting around I would have just put the car back on the road in that configuration. Since in order to put an sbc together world have required the purchase of a rotating assembly I decided to add a few more $$$ and go with a crate LS3. I went with the base 430 HP version since the one with a bigger cam costs about 1400 more. I'll probably throw a Lunati stick in it before it hits the road. I put a T56 in the car ten years ago and will stick with it behind this engine. My local Chevy Part Manager has an LS powered '71 Camaro and has been a big help.