Are you sure that is a tbi headed engine? it looks like it using the 96+ accessory drive and ac compressor..... ask him for a picture of the front of the heads (for the casting marks).Also give er a look for excessive bondo rust "repair" especially up there in Ohio.
Or look at the center 2 bolts on the intake manifold, if they're straight up instead of angled like the front and rear bolts, it's TBI heads and intake.
Just got back from looking at it (1hr 45 mins each way)... it's definitely a TBI headed engine, TBI intake and distributor. It is using the 96+ accessory drive and AC compressor with the shorter type water pump that sits tight to the block w/o the timing mark tab. Although I forgot to check for a plastic timing cover... I think those are the chief indicators of a Vortec short block.
The verbal history I got, after an un-impressive test drive, was that the truck was purchased last summer from a 454 SS enthusiast in Dayton who set it up the way it sits... Vortec short block, TBI heads, etc, etc.
There was a slight "tick" in the lower end so the current owner had "another" Vortec short block installed for $3,???.
I politely asked if he had the receipts for the work... which turns out to have been done by his childhood friend who still lives close by, and... who had made the comment that some one "spent a lot of money on those heads".
So I politely asked where his friend got the engine... a junk yard or a crate? It turns out that his friend just happen to have had a Vortec short block in his shop.
(It occurred to me that maybe the TBI heads might have been just sitting around as well.)
So I politely asked if the heads I was looking at were the same heads that come from Dayton. I was assured that his friend wouldn't do him like that...
(although 3k sounds to me like a lot of $ to swap out a short block).
Although the receipts were going to take a little time to locate... I was assured they were very non-descriptive as to the scope of work performed. All I could do was give him a silent WTF look.
He asked me what I was thinking...
(ummm... no verification of which VIN / RPO code the short block came from, no flow test numbers for the heads...)
So I politely gave him my standard "0 receipts = 0 vale" response... with another WTF look.