The latest development with the About.com project 1977 Corvette - nicknamed "Mistress Quickly" - is a new engine! The engine that was in the car when we bought it had zero compression in the #1 cylinder due to a bad vacuum brake booster that the previous owner had ignored for too long.
Since we were going to put a fresh engine in the car, we also decided to upgrade the induction system (carburetor and intake manifold) and the exhaust system at the same time. The steps that follow are not an engine installation procedure, because that varies based on your year and model, but rather a set of tips as we encountered them. You should buy a good shop manual for your year and model of Corvette for specific instructions on performing an engine swap.