Yard saleing this morning and found a 79 Buick LeSabre Limited, 38K miles, true granny car, always garaged. Can't tell if its the 301 or 350 but run like its probably a 350. "Leather" interior, cruise, power, ac blows cold. No rust (Idaho high desert car) original paint, has a few scratches on the truck from stuff being put there. $1500, I can probably get it for 1200-1300. Bad news 12 MPG. Price is right for cars on Ebay but they aren't selling. Comments....

unless its going to be your daily driver, don't waste your money. Other than that, it sounds cheap

Buy It !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 301 was a Pontiac, the 350 was a Buick, plus a 403 Olds was also offered. All were legit. All looked different. Pontiac & Olds had the distributor at the rear of the engine, with the Olds having an oil filler tube on the front of the intake manifold. The Buick has the distributor on the front, and if I'm not mistaken, it still had ribs on the valve covers. All GM engines were painted corporate blue at that point, mainly because engines from different divisions were being used by other divisions.

Engine code is the 5th character in the v.i.n., but unfortunately I don't seem to have the codes available. I think I have an Oldsmobile shop manual around from that era still, and it might list the codes.

Also, on all V8 Buick LeSabres that year, a 2.41 ratio was standard out back.

Sounds like it would be perfectly fine car...especially at that price. But if you really want a Chevelle...well to say "tempted but Not Chevelle" is quite an understatement. Great car, well worth owning and driving, but not in the same class as a Chevelle.

2 door or 4 door?
either way, those cars are cruisers. but i don't recall ever seeing a Buick engine in anything built after about 76 or so- but i could be wrong. i know they used Olds 307's and 350's, as well as Pontiac 301's and some 350's.
get the car and take all the miles of vacuum hoses of it, take off the converter (and put a smog legal replacement on, of course), and pull the timing ahead and you'd probably get 20+ mpg and a bit more power than stock while riding in plush comfort.