Got the motor swapped into the 69 and fired it up saturday and everything sounds great. Here are a couple pictures of everything. Keep in mind this motor is only staying in the car till his 396 is done. So some of it looks a little tacky but is functional. Still need to get the electric fuel pump installed but it should make it to car craft.

stats on this one. I know it's a little different than your typical late mode small block, share with everyone!

This motor started life as a 300 horse merc cruiser engine. It has vortec heads, roller cam, factory windage tray, and 2 bolt mains. This motor was condemn as being cracked as it was milking the oil in the boat it was in. I got it and pulled the heads and oil pan off and could not find any crack in it. I then decided to take a gamble and sent the heads off to have the valve guides milled down and different valve springs installed for a bigger cam. I bought off ebay a used ISKY roller cam that specs out at 215/225--485/505 with 112 LSA. Then bought some roller tipped rockers arms and reassemblied it with new rod,  main bearings and gaskets. Topped it off with a performer air gap intake and a quick fuel 650 double pumper carb.  

So, what's the diff between a Mercruiser and a normal engine?

Nothing other then it says el henco mexico all over it. I think I typed that correctly?

I was wondering since there might have been some differences. I know the 502 Mercruisers we did at Friendly had iron heads that took to hogging out very well, got 609 hp with a decent cam and good parts.

"Hecho en Mexico"... amigo!

It's a good thing I did not take spanish in high school.

yeah, what did you take? I took german. Lot of good it's done me. Should have taken spanish, at least it would help while on vacation.

Did you magnaflux the block then?

No I did not, I looked in the typical places that would show a crack if it had really froze and did not see anything. So I took a big gamble and put it back together.  I know it is not the correct way of doing things but I figured everything I did to it could be used on a different engine if it did end up having a problem. I think what really happened is the intake gaskets were leaking causing the problem when it was in the boat. I have had it running and built coolant pressure in it at this point and it show no signs of milking the oil at this point. Will keep my fingers crossed.

I might add that Chris (67SS) is the one that engineered my EFI from stuff mostly on his spare parts shelf. I swear sometimes he dreams stuff like this us for fun since he doesn't watch much TV.

I did a little research on Mercruiser/Marine engines a while ago. My boat's got a 4.3 in it, and I was checking to see why "boat parts" are 4x more expensive than their road-bound counterparts. Much of it is in the cooling system. Many of the water pump parts are bronze instead of steel, and the engines are built/cammed to make power and be durable at 80 - 90% of redline. Boats pretty much run a constant (high) rpm whereas a car is constantly running the range.

I stopped by Chris's place on Sunday and saw the "test mule" for his motor and heard it run. The motor sounded good and the car itself is a nice project.
Chris - Thanks for having me out and showing me around.  It was a nice excuse for a drive.

Welcome anytime Mike. Hopefully you car sells and you can get back to the chevelle. 

Hoping to take the test mule chevelle for a drive tonight. Finishing up a couple things for the fuel pump and it is ready to roll.