I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a trade - let me show your engine on youtube and I'll do it for free. The old guy probably thought it would be easy money - put it on the dyno, fire it up, vroom vroom, see 700 hp, youtube gold. That might explain why he kept pushing and pushing instead of just fixing things.
Naw, he messes up a lot.. he did a small block mopar and went to advance the timing, turned the dist the wrong way then was like.. welp.. guess that's all the power it's got..