How this all happened

I bought a 1985 Mitsubishi pickup used in 1987. I ran the truck in stock form (2.6 Liter 4 cylinder and 5 speed) for many years; hauling building materials, motorcycles and trailering a boat. Then one day with a load of railroad ties (5 to be exact) the stock engine quit on me.

In 1989 I had bought a Dodge D-50 Sport Truck with intention to make it the target for the V8 swap. As time passed, I had picked too many parts from the sport truck and wound up sending it to the junkyard after landing a deal on a 1968 Chevy Nova, which was top contender for a V8 makeover.

I had gotten rid of the Sport Truck and the Nova projects before making any significant progress on them, and had kind of given up the hobby to spend time with my new Wife...then all of the sudden I had this "opportunity" to put another engine in my daily driver truck.

I checked the junkyards and want ads for suitable stock replacements. There were only a few candidates, all costing $550 or more, and none of them were guaranteed.

The low buck alternative
I wound up buying a 1979 Chevrolet Caprice with a running 305 and TH350 tranny for $150. After getting such a deal on the donor car, I thought I would be able to do the V8 conversion for about the same cost as buying another 4-banger. Of course nothing would be a bolt-in and the mounts and driveshaft would have to be fabricated, but I wanted to do the swap anyways and became comitted to make it work. About half way into the swap, I found I would be moving out of state (New York to Texas) and had to push the timetable up to get it on the road.
I did'nt like the stress of having to get the swap done by a certain day or week in the month, but I actually had it on the road for a week before driving it 1200 miles to Alabama. (see tales from the trip)