[D Berry]

My first post so a little background. I'm from Illinois and am 69 years old and have been playing around with cars since the mid 60s Started with a 59 Ford then a 55 Chevy and 68 Camaro. From there til I was 50 it was all Mopars and one Buick Skylark,finally three late model Mustangs all with the 3.7 liter v8. Now I've got a 79 Firebird Esprit, even though I have zero experance with Pontiacs it's great bodystyle with the lackluster 301 two barrel. In fact I believe it has a vacuum leak. I could get a headgasket replacement but from what I've read it seems the casting is so light that the odds of finding a good used head seems unlikely. The car is just to cruise so performance is not the reason for considering a swap. Mostly it's cost since I have to pay someone to do the work because I'm old, fat and arthritic. So I'm thinking that a Pontiac v8 326 and up is pretty much a bolt in. Course $500 and up for a engine that was running when removed 10 years ago seems a bit pricey to me. I know that the auto T/As like mine were available with the Olds 403 in 79 to 81, so what besides motor mounts and exhaust needs to be done for this swap? Next has anybody here swapped a Buick v8 into a Firebird, I'm actually familiar with the Buick because of my Skylark? It seems that Olds and Buick are a lot more common around here than Pontiacs which is what I'd really like to find, hopefully something still in a car so I could hear and see it running. Any help would be appreciated.