No, you aren't fooling yourself at all. These engines can go from the salvage yard after not being run for 30 years and you can run them fine for awhile.
The issue is, you will have this nagging feeling in the back of your mind that you have a total engine rebuild in your future at some point. As long as now isn't a better time than later to do it, you are fine. Nobody can answer that but you. I have a few trucks that I got running after sitting forever. It could be years before I need to address it.
IF you remove the head, while the head is off, see if there is a stamped number in the center of the top of the piston. If there is, thats the current bore size.
As far as drilling the front mounting holes, its outlined in the article on how to do it right, but if you can find a plate thats
already drilled and just transfer the hole pattern over, it will work okay. Everything depends on two things, your budget and your level of perfection. Good luck and have fun whatever you do!
