Back in 2010 or so, I bought an engine for 99 cents on eBay. That's right, ninety-nine cents. It was a 1275 that had been sitting for a couple of decades. It was in Queen Creek, AZ, so it was an easy drive from Peoria.
The engine was definitely not in good shape. The pistons were frozen to the bores. The head had been sitting in water at some point. But it was complete and salvageable. I disassembled it and sent it to Standard Machine in Glendale, AZ, with the understanding that they'd fit it in 'when they had time'. I gave it to them in August of 2012... I got everything back in fall of 2015. So it worked out ok. Roger knows his stuff too, and as far as I know is one of the only shops in the Valley that works on these types of engines. He cut me a fair deal.
Fortunately, the crank was ok and the cylinders cleaned up at +.030. The block wasn't cracked and cleaned up fine. I found another head (the one I had wasn't looking too good) and Standard Machine cleaned up and rebuilt it.
I bought a cam, oil pump and bearings from MED Engineering in the UK. It's nothing hot, just a 256 duration reground cam. I bought a set of County pistons (AE design, but you can't get the originals any more).
I also found that at some point in the past I had bought an engine stand. Yay for me!
Here's everything but the head on the work bench. Eventually, this becomes an engine.
