My wife and I just got our 71 Chevelle a week ago. One of the main selling points to me was the fact that the car has no patches on it anywhere and after closer inspection this week, I could only find 2 rust issues that I need to resolve pretty quick. The other selling point was the original #s matching motor and trans which I have verified. My question is this, it is a 71 malibu with a 307 and 350 turbo. The motor has a small amount of oil smoke when starting, but otherwise not bad. I was discussing replacing the motor with a crate engine and saving the motor in case I ever had to sell it. The fella I was talking with told me that since the motor was a 307 and chevys biggest mistake in his opinion, that having the #s matching motor/trans wouldn't add anything to the selling price. What are you guys opinion of this, since we are chevelle enthusiasts, I value your opinions over his. Second question was this, I saw on the yearone site they have a 350 with 400 hp for 2900 +. Has anyone ever used these and is there a better deal out there somewhere that is trustworthy? Thanks for any comments. Tony

The #matching is tricky. The purist will pay more for the #'s. The enthusiast will pay more for the 350. I don't know about the year one 350, but I would go with a GM performance crate motor from JEGS or SUMMIT. You know what your getting and they come with a 3yr warranty

You can also get any crate engine you want from any Chevy dealer. Go talk to one, they should be able to beat the price of year one or anyone else for that matter. I was looking at the crate Hemi engines in the Year One book for Mopars and they are $5000 higher than from a Dodge dealer.

You can try www.crateenginedepot.com (http://www.crateenginedepot.com) they are a chevy dealer local to me, but I believe Jeg's has everyone beat.

Save the motor( if it is the one the car came with when the car rolled off the assy. line). You wont get much if you try to sell it and unless you dont have anywhere to store it, it will not hurt to keep it

Like Crushbox said, it won't hurt to store it if you have the space.

My opinion is, since you are going to be doing paint work and probably other things to the car, you should do what you want so you will enjoy it.

Since it is not an SS and you don't have to prove anything if you wanted to sell it, there isn't any extra value in the original 307. Also, the price range that it would be in isn't going to be a collector's range, it will be in the basic range which most people don't care about how original it is because they mostly are looking for something that they can jump into and have some fun.
If the car was a very low mileage, everything original, pristine condition, then it would make a difference.

Keep everything. The fact it's not an SS matters, but so does your originality. 20 years from now, who knows - best to keep it. As said already, do what you want with the car in the meantime.

IMO, I'd consider replacing & storing the tranny also. Not much more than a rebuild.

original 283 ci, 2-sp powerglide in storage, replaced by zz4 350 with 700R4 for fun. No regrets.

Read the fine print carefully. I just bought a ZZ4 355Hp from summit. The valves, heads, cam, etc are all more robust on the GM performance vs the most of the others. And for $3850 I thought it's a good deal. I added the March serpentine kit and some other stuff putting the ZZ4 slightly over 400 hp. (I think).

My2cents
Michael