Man, this sounds so familiar. A good friend of mine bought his first new car, a 1977 Thunderbird, and didn't make it home 90 miles before dash lights came on. He shut it down and called the dealer who picked it up. They found it had metal shavings in it. They put in a new long block. It only lasted a couple of weeks and did the same thing. I'm guessing it was a 302 engine. It's been a long time so.. Long story short, they put a 3rd engine in that brand new car which they opened up to examine before installing. It was clean. Now what are the odds of getting a brand new car with a bad engine then a bad replacement engine some months later with the same problem? If I didn't know the guy personally I'd find it hard to believe but he would not make this up.