Somebody crashed the car into a barnyard, and the motor got flung out of the car into the manure pile. The wrecker driver never saw it, the driver was killed in the wreck and for some reason didn't want his motor back, the farmer was gonna let it lay there until he needed it for an irrigation pump, and soon it got completely covered over with cow patties. Farmers kids sold the place when the old man died, and
@Krooser works for the land development company that was building the massive new housing development. He saw one valve cover sticking up with a rotted plug wire going down in a hole and instantly knew what it was. By 2003, Gorbal Warming had petrified all of the cow manure, so he chipped it away and loaded up the 331 Hemi before the environmental people documented the motor as an ancient artifact, and commissioned a study on the motor as it was carefully dug out with knitting needles and tooth brushes! He saved his company a tremendous amount of money by quickly removing the poo crusted old motor, and got promoted to VP of Pre Environmental Assessment Division of the company! So the story goes, anyway! :D:p