i got an 86 berlinetta originally 305 carb auto. im putting in a 350 w/ the same tranny. the crankshaft is 2 1/2 inches in diameter so the flywheel that was on the 305 wont work. can i use the one on the 350 or what do i do? as far as a i know its the original tranny. could anyone tell me how i would know if the tranny or engine are the original? and where would i look on the 350 to find a vin so i can find out the year and stuff for it, it'd just be nice to know it for different info. the 305 had hooker headers. am i going to be able to use those on the 350. yes i have a lot of questions lol. any help is greatly appreciated. thanks

 

For the most part, anything that fits on a 305 will fit a 350 and vise versa as long as both blocks are before or after '87. The headers should fit fine. I'm not sure about your flywheel issue. Maybe someone else knows.

 

If the back of your 305 crankshaft is round with an aluminum housing for the seal, that's the original "type" of engine, anyway. Known as a "one piece rear main seal". Sounds like your 350 is the older 2-piece design, so you need a flexplate for the '83-'85 f-body V8 application. It will be 153-tooth just like your current flexplate, and will bolt up to the torque converter and engage the starter just fine. I have one available if you're interested.

Most likely, the headers will fit fine as well. The typical 305 and 350 heads had the same exhaust configuration, so unless you got some really weird 350 heads, no problem.

The VIN information is stamped on the pad at the front of the block on the passenger side on the same surface the head seals to. If the block hasn't been decked, you should be able to find it. It won't give you much useful information, though. The head casting #'s would be more meaningful to have.

(CamaroLover09, for the record, the one piece rear main seal started in 1986, not 1987.)

 

thanks alot. i should be able to get a flywheel tho for free. im doin this project w/ my grandpa and he's known the owner of a junkyard for years so its usually pretty reliable and pretty free
ps five7kid you know your stuff. iv read alot of posts and it seems like ur always comin to the rescue. thanks alot

 

can i ask what exactly is the difference between the one piece and two piece? i really dont even know what the rear main seal is. just lookin to learn somethin new. thanks

 

The rear main seal is the oil seal on the crankshaft just behind the rear main bearing. It keeps oil inside the engine while allowing the crankshaft to rotate.

The original seals had one half of the seal in the block, and the other half in the rear main bearing cap - two pieces. Starting in 1986, the crank and block were redesigned so that a round seal could be put on from the rear of the crankshaft. This required the rear flange of the crank to be redesigned, but being a continuous rubber seal, it sealed better than two-piece seals. There was a counterweight built into the 2-piece rear seal cranks aft of the seal that couldn't stay with the crank and get the one-piece seal over the flange, the weight was moved to the flexplate/flywheel on one-piece rear main seal engines. Since the rear of the crank and the flexplate/flywheel had to change, the factory made the bolt pattern different so you wouldn't be able to put the newer style flexplate/flywheel on the older engine, and vice versa.

 

thanks for the teachin