Heh. In the late 70s early 80s, there was a local mechanic who used to keep vega rear ends in stock. No fooling. Seems a lot of motorheads did the same as you and crammed mouse motors into them. Stopped the oil issue but was hell on rear.
I didn’t put the 283 in it. I sold it to a guy who did it and promptly shredded the rear end. He eventually turned it into a bracket racer with an old Chevy II rear end under it.