Hey everyone, I'm new here and this is my first post. I usually come to this site when I need any info on my camaro but I have never registered. But today I have searched the internet and here for hours and cant find answers anywhere so I figured I register and post my question. So my question is this - I have a 92 camaro rs with a 5.7 , previous owner told me that it was swapped for a 5.7. I bought this car a good while ago and then just sat in my back yard for a while. I recently started driving it and then took the engine apart to fix the heads and I took the time to figure out exactly what the engine block specs were by looking for all codes and castings, and this is were I ran into problems. I found these codes so far, GM 5.7 LG, 14093638, 638 (both sides of the block) and the engine id V09088AB but the engine vin is missing. I know that V=Flint plant, 0908=sep 08, BUT the problem is that I cant find anywhere on the net what the suffix code 8AB is!! I know that 14093638 is for 87-95 engines. Ive found many sites that have full list of suffix codes but none have "8AB" Ive searched for hours and nothing All I found was this from another site ---""I found a 8AB suffix is my list. Here is what it is. 8AB - 1988 350-260hp 4-bbl carb (Base) inboard/outboard Marine application. Only block I find with 638 is 1409638 1986+ truck 1 pc rear main seal""...here is the link to where this is from http://www.camaros.net/forums/archiv...p/t-90208.html . If anyone knows anything please let me know thanks!!

 

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

That block was used in production and crate engines. There is a sticky with casting numbers in the top section of this forum. I had one that started off as a 4-bolt main ZZ3 crate engine, and another that was installed in a '92 Suburban from the factory as a 2-bolt main. The are 1-piece rear main seal, and cast for roller lifter provisions (have to be machined, drilled & tapped in order to accept roller lifters). The Suburban had flat tappet lifters, but all of the roller provisions were machined.

 

Right; SUPER common block.

I wouldn't get all wound up about those stamping codes. All they tell is what THE BLOCK was part of when it was new; doesn't reflect any changes that have been made since, like VIRTUALLY ALL replacement engines have had (nobody just gets a junk engine and jams it unaltered into a car; just doesn't happen).

So, you've got the same block that would have come in the car if it had come with a 350 in the first place, with who knows what heads now, and who knows what pistons or cam. Better by far to spend your effort focusing on WHAT PARTS the thing is built out of, than piddling around with those useless "codes".

A "marine" engine is no different from a car engine, what Merc & OMC & Volvo and other boat drive mfrs will try to tell you notwithstanding. I wouldn't be the slightest bit concerned that this particular block happened to have been wrapped in non-Vette fiberglass for its early life. It will have forgot all about that by now. Blocks have very short memories about such things. Trust me, I've been on very friendly terms with quite a number of them over the years, and NOT ONE could tell me what shape the sheet metal was that it originally came wrapped in (or the fiberglass). If the deck hadn't been cut, I could read the tattoo, but it never seemed to make much difference; and about a .005" cut off the deck, and all the sudden, the block carried no trace of having been out of a Vette, Impala, houseboat, Nova, truck, Camaro, or whatever. I finally figured out that all blocks with the same casting # (638 in your case) are pretty much equal no matter what they were originally installed in. So I quit asking em about 30 or 35 years ago. Just seemed like more trouble than it was worth... kind of like arguing with a blank wall. Makes you look kind of .... logically challenged, perhaps?

 

Thanks guys for your help...I didn't get all wound up I just really wanted to know what the block came out of just to know the specs and I was just so frustrated that I couldnt find what 8ab meant . I looked at many sites with code listings but nothing, thanks for clarifying it .

 

Yeah people tend to get all kinds of excited and worked up about "I can't find this stamping code", as if, there's something of value there. Then they get almost violently offended when told they're wasting their time; but I have yet to see even ONE person who can clearly and succintly articulate just exactly WHAT they are expecting that "code" to lead to, beyond bleating over and over like a sheep, they just want to know it. Kind of like, I want to know where the water coming out of my faucet came from last; did it evaporate out of the Pacific? out of the Caribean? did it fall as rain at night or during the day? Profound and important questions, no doubt; but USELESS. It's WET and SAFE TO DRINK and that's all you need to know about it NOW.

Keep in mind, NOBODY just picks up a motor from out of a whatever, and plops it as-is into a whatever else. That is so rare as to be beyond considering as a possibility. 99.999% of the time, a non-original engine IN A CAR (as distinct from, in a pile of pulled motors), has been "rebuilt"; meaning, EVERY PIECE that might have depended on what THE BLOCK "came out of", has been TOUCHED and most likely CHANGED. Some things are CERTAIN to have been changed: pistons, cam, bearings, rings for example, and others such as the heads while not an absolute requirement to be changed, usually end up randomized. So even if there had been useful information contained in the "code" about what THE ENGINE used to be, THE ENGINE no longer is what the "code" on THE BLOCK refers to. Its identity is destroyed.

Think of it this way: apart from just pure intellectual curiosity, how would you use any such information about THE BLOCK? That is, what would you do differently, depending on what that BLOCK (and keep in mind always, all you can know about for sure from those "codes" is THE BLOCK, as distinct from THE ENGINE) "came out of"? Would you bore it out to a different size, paint it a different color, use different size main bearings in it, or what?

I thought so.

That's why those codes are so useless. There's nothing there that's "actionable". No fork in the road you'll come to that those codes will tell you, this 638 block came from a truck so I'll do this, but if it had come from a Camaro I'd do that, or if it had been from a Caprice I'd do something else. They're just .... useless. Any ACTIONABLE, USEFUL information, is in the casting #, which you've got. So it's just not worth pursuing. A great deal of maze to be run, with no cheeze whatsoever at the end. Mazes with no cheeze are to be avoided.