What's stupid about swapping an anemic 301 with a
400? I'm talking a Pontiac 400 not a 400 SBC (I agree that would be
Stupid), a 400 would bolt right in (although it'd probably require some beefing up of the trans and rear end).
Valuing "Originality" is a personal preference but I don't see the need to retain originality in any Gbody other than a GNX
maybe a GN if it was a low mile survivor. A time may come when Gbodies other than the low production number specials (GNX, GN, 2+2, 442, SS etc.) become "valuable" but that might take another 20+ years and there's a good chance that day may never come as it seems that Millennials value the bus, Uber and EVs over performance and the whole hobby/collector car thing seems lost on them.
One of the reasons (among several) that the Chevelle and to a lesser extent other GM Abodies are so collectable is that many of the boomers are very nostalgic for those cars because their parents owned those cars. In reality only LS6 454 Chevelle SSs should be expensive, but even 307 powered 4 doors that were total run of the mill appliances can be found with asking prices of $10K today. Today's young adults won't be as nostalgic for G-bodies is because the family cars were Dodge Caravans and Toyota Camrys and at the same time most of the hot performance cars were imports (RX7, Supra, M3, etc.), mostly because other than the
Grand National GM was too slow to adopt EFI.
