Well, I finished my project a couple of days ago.  Took just over 4 weeks to
go through the engine and transmission.  I had a local shop do the tranny,
and I had a Stage 2 shift kit installed along with an Allison 18-2100 stall
converter.  They said the transmission had some sludge in it and third gear
was about gone, but no metal shavings to speak of.  (My '74 TA has 69,400
original miles on it.)  Inside the engine, I found the #4 connecting rod
bearing to be a little rough, but the crank only had a couple of very minor
scatches on it so only needed polishing.  The cylinder bores had very little
wear and only needed honed.  I built the engine myself.  I installed a
Melling high volume oil pump, Comp Cams 268 Extreme Energy cam with lifters,
and a high volume water pump.  I put my 4X heads aside for storage, and had
a set of 1978 6X #4 heads rebuilt with new guides, hardened seats, new
springs and BB Chevy rocker studs.  I have Hooker Competition headers and
Flowmaster 2 1/2" dual exhaust to finish it off.  The biggest pain in the
a.s in the rebuild had to be putting the headers back on.  Hopefully I will
never have to mess with them again.

After my initial cam break-in, I took it for a short easy drive.  Doesn't
take much throttle to get the old girl moving now!  After that drive, I
found I had an oil leak at the back of the engine.  I could only think that
I had screwed up the rope seal, and that meant a major pain to repair.  Upon
closer inspection, I found that the leak was from the back of the oil pan.
I had to drop the pan, (all of 1 inch), and replace the gaskets.  I found
the the rear neoprene seal had split lengthwise about an inch at the bottom
of the rear main.  I can only guess that I had snugged all the pan bolts
down, then tightened the bolts at the timing chain cover, which pulled the
pan forward and stretched the rear seal.  I took it for another short drive
after replacing the pan gaskets, and no more leak.

I plan on taking it out to the drag strip sometime this summer after I put a
few hundred miles on it.  I will let you all know then how much of an
improvement I got for all my work.  My total cost for the engine and
transmission rebuilds was right at $3,000, and numerous cuts and scrapes on
my hands and arms. ;^)
Here's some links to a few pictures.

HD

http://webpages.charter.net/gallen541/Engine%20Before.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/gallen541/Engine%20After.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/gallen541/Engine%20After1.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/gallen541/TA10.jpg

(hope these work!)