427 Side Oiler, good price?

[Danr55]

Let's see if I understand this correctly: A guy you know has a motor that has been sitting for 20 to30 years, he says it's a 427 side oiler that was raced hard in a roadster before it was dumped. He's asking $6500 for it as is, sight unseen? Is that about right? You have no way of knowing if the block and/or the heads are cracked, if one or more of the cylinder skirts is chipped or broken, a bearing spun, or any number of other failures that were typical of these engines when they were pushed too hard. Sounds like a gamble. Can you afford to lose the $6500 if you're wrong? Oh, I ran into a guy a few months ago who had a 427 that had a cracked block that was "stitched" back together. I had to investigate the process before turning that one down.