Out of curiosity - is there any real value to this engine / tranny?
Not sure what you mean by "real" value. It has value in a number of ways and as a display piece there is likely a number of possible new homes for such a thing though it appears it might need restoration given its current condition
Sorry, I was a bit vague.
I was wondering if there was value (outside of the display function) for the engine and transmission. In other words, would it be worth buying and restoring to use in a car versus display.
Thoughts?
Don't know why not. My late Dad run a garage and back in the day, had a 283 SB chevy engine that sat with oil in it for about a decade, pulled it out of storage, pulled the heads, made sure pistons was frozen, even used marvel mystery oil to loosen up the pistons, fired it up, put it in my buddy's Nova and ran it for several years!!
And that engine already had several thousand miles on it!!