When I started teaching auto mechanics at the state trade school in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1985, there was a new-old-stock 1965 409 engine in the shop that had NEVER BEEN STARTED! It had been a donation from GM when the school was opened, and nobody could figure out how to dispose of it without sending it to scrap. GM won't allow any donated material to be sold, traded, or used for anything other than training purposes. I was offered thousands of dollars to "Take a coffee break, and there will be a 348 there when you get back". Nope, not worth losing my job! The engine, still unfired, disappeared from the shop after I moved on to another job in 1990, so I guess somebody gave in to temptation. We tore it down once, and it still had weight numbers on the tops of the pistons in felt-tip marker from a factory balancing job!
Jerry
