new dart owner needing help.

hello all my name is Dwayne from western Nebraska. I have been a die hard Chevy owner/builder for 15 years. Before I start let me say thank you all for the info I have already learned and read. it helped me to decide to purchase my first mopar this weekend. here is the story. I just finished building a chevy 412 stroker engine. took me two years of computer sims, and machine work to build. wanted max power, dependablity, low cost....ok so I got the first two. engine ended being way over budget. I have no car for the engine, so I start searching ebay for a car. a Chevy none the less. when out of the blue, 80 miles from my house is a 1972 Dart Swinger. 318 auto. I decide what the heck, I am passing there anyway, so I stop.....that is where the fun begins....instead of finding an old chevy...I come home with a dodge. Body wise it is in very good shape. has a 2" by 2" rust hole behind the pass rear wheel. and some of the filler is falling out of the seam on the sail panel. no other bondo, rust, or dents. interior is flawless. I gave the kid 1600 for the thing and came dragging it home. now the problems start. the engine blows a ton of smoke, and has a dead miss. I check all other things (trying to have faith) with no avail. then I try a compression check. 142-146 on 6 cly. #2 has 41 and #8 has 35 I add a squirt of oil and up it comes to around 100 on both. so I have 2 cyl with bad rings. here is the funny part. with 2 bad holes the car is still quick. takes no effort to smoke off the rear tires...I found today that the car has a 8.75 rear with a spool (I guess the 8.75 to be a better one from reading here) and posi is fun. here is my problem I live way out in the sticks and can find no replacemet engine. I can overhaul, but the wife is gonna kill me for having a 5k motor in the garage, with no car and needing to spend that much on building the dodge. I made the mistake of "love at first sight" with this car, and dont plan on selling it. what would you all do. been trying to sell the chevy motor to some racer, but again living in the sticks is a pain. and after the chevy motor build and the 1600 given for the car, we are tight. But with the felt power of this car running on 6 cyl, if I ever get 8 to work, I may never buy a chevy again....

BTW does anyone close to here have a 318 good runner for sale?