Hey guys. I need to id a block. I've got all the numbers off of the side, but which ones tell me which year and where it came from?

What year it is and what it came out of are irrelevant, if all it is is a block. Beyond telling you whether it's a one-piece or a two-piece rear main seal, and which side the dipstick is on, both of which you can tell without looking up anything, the year is useless. And no magic jumped out of the sheet metal (or even fiberglass) that it was originally wrapped in, so none of that is of any practical consequence either, it would merely be an exercise in curiosity.

If you have the casting number, which is a 6-, 7-, or 8-digit number off of the bell housing flange right behind the driver's side head, it will tell you whether it's a 305 or a 350 or a 267 or a 283 or a 400. That is a unique property of the block casting utself. You can't make any of those blocks into any of the others. Get that number and look it up at www.mortec.com/castnum.htm

I rather doubt that your casting (nor any piece of metal, for that matter) has any sort of phyche. There have been times, however, that I have the strangest intuitive inclination that some pieces of my castings and forgings have a libido, and that they are urged to satisfy that thirst at the expense of lesser pieces of metal, such as those found behind blue ovals and sheep, or those under cover of foriegn representaion.

If you were intending to learn about the "I.D." numbers on your castings, however, you can follow EB's advice and/or check that against the decoders found here: http://www.nastyz28.com/spmenu.html

Well. other than the first part being a real smarta** answer, the rest of the information was helpful. block was from a 1974 A body vehicle, cast june 17th 1974, engine assembled june 19th. Also can be found in the 1978 Corvette 350.

If it was cast in June of 74, it almost certainly did not come in a 74 Chevelle but rather in a 75 one, since it usually takes about 2-3 months between casting and installation into a vehicle, and 74 production stopped in late May or early June of 74 in preparation for the late August release of the 75 year-model cars. It certainly did not come in a 78 Vette, although it wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference to the block if it did. It would have had the same dish pistons, the same 882 heads, the same 929 cam, the same the same the same, as the 74 Chevelle. Or an Impala, Monte Carlo, Nova, or a truck for that matter. They were pretty much all the same for many years across all the Chevy vehicle product lines. None of which makes any difference now, since it's a block. Being a block, it forgets immediately what shape the sheet metal it first got put in was wrinkled into, and it was too stupid to read the stickers, so it really doesn't care what it came in.

But, one good thing about that, is that the only SBC V8 in production at the time was the 350, or the 400. So at least it's not a 305 or a 307 or something even worse.

Yep. I agree that it came out of a 1975 model year vehicle. A truck to be precise, after mentioning this to the guy I got it from originally, he said it was a truck. It's been bored 60 over and 15 off the deck, the heads ( ported set of 193's) will have at least 10 off of them to take off some pitting. I've got to do some looking around to figure out what the final CR will be. It will have flat pistons, but with the eyebrows in them. Stock rods, and crank. Now, I've got to find a correct fly wheel for this. I need a 163 tooth I think. This is going to be used for a TPI engine in a 1992 Firebird body ( originally a V6 car).I need to figure out now how to mount the knock sensor and the oil pressure sensor. I know the block has two ports, on on each side, that have plugs in them that I can use for the knock sensor, the only question will be which side to put it on. I will be putting shorty headers on it, so I'll have to see what the clearances look like first.

thanks again for the information! I love this site! :lala:

i think if i had a +.060 350 block i'd drop it off at the recycler and look for another block.

why is that? I've read lots on boring these and .060 over seems to be a safe number for these older blocks. of course, it won't give me any room in the future if I need to make repairs.

4 bolt 350 blocks aren't anything special nor hard to find. like you said +.060 is at the limit, maybe even past the limit depends on a UT check.if it were me i'd be looking for a one piece rear seal block to start with.

jackpot! i just found a four bolt main, single piece rear seal block that all it needs is a good honing!! with the crank, oil pan, flywheel for 150 bucks.

Dont forget about the 010 or 020 high tin and nickel blocks that are more desirable since they improve durability, hardness and heat dissipation. They can be indentified by the 010 under the timing cover. However, cylinder wall thickness is the overridering consideration - and a block with no tin or nickel and thick cylinder walls is generally preferable to a high nickel block with thin walls.
Something that does make a difference when you think of the piece of metal it came from.

Hey guys.. one more question.. Ok. the four bolt block fell through.. it had some significant scratches that he didn't tell me about, luckily I took the heads off before giving him any cash. I've got no time to have the work done on a block, I'll be retiring from the Navy in a month and want this to be done before then. Now, I've got another question... the last and best block that I've found is a pristine block casting number 14093638.. 87-95 350 roller or flat tappet..does this mean that I can use a cam in it that uses hydraulic lifters in it?Specifically, the compcams XE268H series cams? He's also got a set of crate engine heads, new and never used, casting number 33417369, Gen I 76cc's but would that work with the 88 tpi intake manifold that I have? I got the block and a set of headers for 100 bucks, and I think that I can get the heads for about 50.

Yes that means that you can use either a flat-tappet, or the factory roller system.

Those heads suck. 70s smogger crap. I'd almost pay somebody to keep them away from me. I sure wouldn't pay money for them. They have nothing of any value.

Man that is directly right! I did some research on the web. those heads really suck, and I couldn't use my TPI intake.. I'd need a different intake.