Even though the '80-'81 blocks are "supposed" to be the turbo blocks- they are not. Even though there is a "T" cast into the side. Only a car ordered with a turbo got the beefed up block. It has slightly larger main bolts and dished pistons to lower the compression. But there is nothing wrong with an '80 4 barrel motor and I hope someone appreciates it for what it is. I have a '79 in my Bonnewagon and people can't believe how great it runs. Use good gears out back and it will surprise you with peppiness while getting 20mpg all day long.
I drove some non-turbo 2nd gens with 301s in them and they were OK for what they were if you wanted to cruise and weren't after speed.
As I keep talking about randomly, I have an 85 firebird I can finally touch again as 5 years later it's out of evidence no-touchy hell. I know the 3rd gen platform borrowed heavily enough from the 2nd gen that the front subframe.can use the exact same motor mounts as a 2nd gen car. So, any parted firebird that was Pontiac powered can donate its crossmember mounts and they work.
At some point I know I NEED an engine for it, the one in there could be used for fogging mosquito duty or run it to screen a destroyer, it'd serve either purpose. And it's sat 5 years since.
I keep saying if I can find a good running poncho I'd like to make it Pontiac powered instead of chebby.
Rear end is a borg-warner 9-bolt, 3.23 gears. Should be sufficient I'd think. Has a 700 trams so I'd need to run an adapter, no biggie. Everything else would likely be OK from spring weight to cooling capacity. I'd save the original just because, but, even though it's an 85 SE it's really not super desirable as such.
That'd be the goal for it anyways, assuming it could be worked in. I'd have to see how time looked though, getting all the way up into Portland-ish territory might be stretching the trip length just a tad too far up there and might need to let someone else grab it. I've got to see how much time we have to work with for the trip.