Thanks for all the comments. You all confirmed what I was thinking was the best thing, and keep the 340/727.
Just as a side note, the reason the 340 was put aside was that it was suffering from repeated blown head gaskets. In fact, it blew 4 head gaskets in different places, but all on the passenger side. The head were rebuilt once and had about 8/1000 taken off to true them up. When it was put back together the last time, after the head rebuild, the head bolts were replaced with head studs and quality non-retorque head gaskets. It ran for about 2000 miles before blowing the gasket the last time. It has been into the machine shop since and had about 4/1000 taken of the block to true it up as well. The 340 only needs to be bored out to 0.030 over and it could be rebuilt The original small block 727 needs to be rebuilt as well, but nothing major. It has a small leak from the front seal and the revrerse band is starting to slip.
We picked up the 440 and the matching 727 for $25 if we took the 76 New Yorker that it was in out of the field it was sitting in. The 440 has been through the machine shop and is in great shape. Does not need to have the cylinders bored, crank is in perfect shape and will still use standard size bearings, same for the rods. Amazing that the only machine work needed on the 440 setup was it needed a new valve job, so 2.14/1.81 valves were put in at no extra cost. The big block 727 seems to be in good shape with no binding, but I will probably have it rebuilt just to make sure. I would hate to have to pull it in a month or two because it gave out. Better safe than sorry I think. It looks like the only thing that I am missing to complete the conversion at this point is a set of headers or a way to attach the original dual exhaust to the 440 exhaust manifolds. Then, just the wiring additions needed to reach the 440 distributor. I will do it such that no wires will be cut and can easily converted back to the 340 if I or someone else get the urge to go original. I am just now waiting for some additional extra cash to complete the 440/727 rebuild and go out and do some rice burner hunting.
Thanks eveyone for your thoughts. And now the original 340/727 will now find a comfortable place in the corner of my garage for a long time until someone gets the urge to rebuild it and put the car back to original.
