Looking for advice on an Atomic 4 repair / replacement

[infy]

I'm on another forum asking some questions and I'm getting some great help there. They also pointed me to this community which is focused on the Atomic 4 and I figured this would be a great resource to help me make some decisions too.

The backstory.. I purchased a 78' Catalina 30 at rock bottom price mainly due to the condition of the gas A4 raw water cooled engine. The previous owner had a mechanic take a look at it and after diagnostics the mechanic basically pointed them to Moyer Marine with quotes for a new engine. So, pretty bad news. Sounds like they determined the block is a write-off.

By the looks of it.. They did *not* take the head off and I don't believe they inspected cylinder walls, gaskets, or valves. I've attached the inspection report... but the short story is:

Cylinder #1 has 0 compression
Cylinder #2 has 30%
Cylinder #3 has 50%
Cylinder #4 has 50%



At worst case, this is a ~$10,000 repower project. Unless I can save the current engine.. or find a replacement used engine.

Plan A:
My current conclusion is that there's still a chance this is only a top-end problem and the block, rings, and etc is OK. But I won't know until I disassemble it.

Photos:



Plan B:
Meanwhile, I've began looking for a replacement engine and I've found a potential candidate. I'm told it ran a month ago, has about 550 hours on it, fresh water cooled, and came out of a Catalina 27. But it looks like it belongs in a dust pan. I don't see any deep corrosion, but everything is covered in surface rust. I'm going to check it out on Sunday and if it looks promising, I'll buy it. It's not on a test stand... but I plan to try and convince the owner to allow me to hotwire the starter with some jump leads to a battery to crank and do a compression test. At minimum I could turn it over by hand and make sure it's not seized.

Photos:



Right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to hotwire or evaluate an A4 on the back of a truck bed.

Any thoughts/suggestions on the overall strategy? Or insights to the pattern on the original A4?