so my head gaskets are seeping on my 92 305 v8 tbi, i bought another engine from a 305 blazer, but its a 78 and the valve covers are different... will i be able to use these heads or am i out the 20$ i spent on the engine?

i can post pics if necessary?

 

heads are basicaly the same just one is a perimeter bolt valve cover one is a center bolt, motors are the same basicaly it will work fine just looks different

 

thank you very much, i figured it was, i just needed some reassurance.

 

Your bigger concern is going to be that your 92 is a 1 piece rear main seal motor, and as a result, has a different crank & corresponding flywheel/flexplate. Your 92 flywheel/flexplate will not bolt to the 78 motor, and the 78 motor most likely has a 168 tooth flywheel, not the 153 that you need. You may have starter bolt compatibility issues too, though I didn't experience any when using my 1971-era block.

Also, the old style oil pans won't clear an aftermarket y-pipe. I have no idea whether they'll clear a stock y-pipe, but since they run in the same place, I'm guessing not. I'm also not sure whether the 78's driver side dipstick will pose problems with stock exhaust manifolds.

Then there's always the issue of the 78 motor having garbage compression (though most if not all of that is due to the combustion chamber size of the heads and probably not the pistons) and a garbage cam. For all the hassles that you're going to go through to get that old motor into your car, you're going to be rewarded with less power and probably worse fuel economy.

 

Not to mention the '78 heads have a different intake mount bolt angle for the center two bolts on each side than the 3rd gen TBI engines. And, the 70's 305 engines had smaller valves, flat tappet (worse) cams. Also not sure if the '78 engines had the 7-bolt exhaust manifold pattern (probably does, I just don't know off the top of my head).

I'd say you bought a practice engine for doing the head gaskets on your '92 engine.