Rusty: My car has been restored to original condition, but the engine is not the numbers matching motor from the factory. My FABO opening page, which describes the story of my Duster, refers to the non-original engine. I posted a notice in a FABO forum in February of 2021 describing my search for the original motor, and I also described my existing engine in a 2020 post about 225 engine identification characteristics. I'm very fortunate in that the original purchaser of the car is still alive. In fact, I had a long chat with him about the history of the car to include the engine replacement in 1988. I captured this chat on video and have watched it several times since it was filmed in April of 2019. The factory motor was burning a lot of oil by 1988, and Ray (the original owner) had it replaced with a parts store short block. All of the engine accessories were transferred to the short block, and the car was soon back on the road. The motor that went in was a May of 1974 casting date engine that came out of another A body car prior to being remanufactured. So my engine has the correct casting number, with the more desirable forged crank. Ray doesn't know what happened to the original engine after it was removed. He searched around his sources in Portland, but simply couldn't locate it. It may still be out there, hence my recent ad offering a reward for its return. When I bought my Duster in April of 2019, the replacement engine had the incorrect "peanut" head on it. I located a really nice, correct head and have installed it on my motor, along with restoring all of the correct underhood components to fall of 1973 standards. So my engine looks exactly correct, and you'd only know that its not the factory motor by examining the VIN stamped at the right rear of the block. The A-904 tranny is the numbers matching original. Final note: Ray has since told me that if he had to do it over again, that he would have kept the original motor and rebuilt it instead of installing a replacement motor. Thanks as always for your support and your interest in my car. Its much appreciated!
