Pulling a 400 Engine

After much planning and scheming, I finally started building up the new hot-rod engine for the Impala.  No more would I get sand kicked in my face by the beach bullies.  Not with 406 rubber-roastin', ground-poundin', nut-bustin' honest-to-Jesus red-white-&-blue cubic inches of jen-yoo-wine Chevy power under the hood.  I started the project by buying a fully machined 4-bolt-main 400 block and crank.  Since I still needed a bunch of 400-only parts (the 400 is sort of an oddity in the small-block Chevy family, with its own rods, damper, flexplate, etc), I headed to Pick Your Part Auto Wrecking in Hayward and found this lovely 1975 Kingswood Estate wagon with an easy-to-pull 400 engine.  After stripping the heads off it, I had a short block with all sorts of necessary parts for about $60.