I have not determined if it is brand new I just know it is a crate motor and it doesn’t look like it was run much. The po was very sheepish about telling me just how much he spent on the car for his nephews 18th birthday but he adamantly would not give me nor let me see the receipts for the car because he said he needed them for a tax deduction nor would he let me have the new interior sitting in the detached 5 car garage But any way I think I will give it a shot and then carefully try rotating the engine by hand. If I feel no contact like valves hitting pistons I should be ok right? I get a manual on cd in 3 or 4 days I might wait till then though I am not familiar with the procedure to do it on this engine.