my friend is a mechanic and has these two engines there for free. i have a 91 trans am 305. the 85 vette is two piece rear main. would the 91 cube van? anything different? thanks guys.

 

the 91 van should SHOULD have a 1-piece rear main seal, that would allow you to keep your stock tranny.

How wuch power are you looking to make out of the swap?...you are rebuilding it right?

 

are you saying i can not use the 85 350 with my 91 trans am 700r4 tranny? yes i would like to rebuild it. ebay has some 383 cranks and kits that look nice. i do not know much about this stuff. i have a choice of the two blocks. are blocks any better than others? years? the only thing i know is the 4 bolt part. i have a set of bare 1986 vette aluminum heads. the car caught fire. would they be ok if they got heated from the fire?

 

The only difference between 1- & 2-piece RMS with regard to the transmission is the flexplate. Non-issue.

Both engines are probably 4-bolt main. Another non-issue (an argument could be made that 2-bolt main is better).

If you're building either one into a 383, I'd pick the later block and get an internally-balanced stroker crank.

Whether the aluminum heads are okay depends upon how hot things got. I've seen pictures of cars that got caught in a wildfire that completely melted the aluminum engine parts.

 

I have heard horror stories about e-bay stuff, but I dont know what one your talking about.

2nd hope you have a close friend thats a machinist, stroking it, you will have a few bucks wrapped up in clearenceing the block

they are both free, take the 4-bolt ...just because you can
your probably not going to make over 450 horse are you? a 2 bolt will hold 400hp fine

 

'85 Corvette would have just had the iron 624 heads, not the aluminum ones (some '86, but '87+ for the most part) and the same cam as the L69.

The '91 will probably have a very similar shortblock, but will be not only a 1pc rear seal as mentioned, but also a roller block too, which is better. The Corvette motor will just be a generic flat-tappet style block.

 

yea the box truck motor would be better, but if it was a rental box truck at one time, it may have bookoo miles on it, but the big 3 (Penske,Budget [formerly Ryder], and U-haul) do a pretty good job with maint, penske does the best job for maint,... just saying that due to engine wear and what you got to do to the block to get it ready to go, im 99.9% sure it would be a 4 bolt main also