Hey everyone..Alan Colvin here...glad to be a part of this board. You may know me from my Chevrolet by the Numbers book series. I have started researching 3rd Gen Camaros for a new book project and was wondering if anyone could help me validate original casting numbers from 3rd Gen cars..especially the block and heads of the 305 cars (for now). Can anyone help me?

 

Specifically what do you want to know?

 

My vote goes to Drew on this. He is the one that usually responds to these questions!

 

I would like to work with someone who has first hand knowledge of the casting numbers for 82-92 Camaro engines. Hopefully I can find someone who has seen or rebuilt original untouched engines so the data will be pure and is not second or third hand data..the 305 data seems to be the most elusive for me right now...can you help me with this Drew?

 

Honestly I haven't bothered too much with 305's. I've owned a handful of them, both in and out of cars, but when one goes bad it's just easiest to grab a 350 and dump the 305 for scrap metal. In the last few years I've been doing a clean-out of sorts and I've gotten rid of at least 4 305 long blocks, so I don't really have any around right now. In my experience the database at www.mortec.com was pretty accurate, but it's since gone offline. Last time I looked there was a clone of the old Mortec list in the internet archive. http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://mortec.com

It's an interesting question, how to build a database without using a pre-existing database. There's a ton of general info on the forum from members rebuilding and modifying their cars, but there's no guarantee the casting numbers they're posting were original/correct.

I would think what you'd want to do is find stock, pristine examples of 305 powered cars, and survey the owners. Then you could match the serial number on the block to the VIN of the car to ensure it's correct. Working from a list of the available 305 engines, it should be easy enough to determine which blocks and heads were used with each version. There shouldn't be more then about three or four head castings that were used, and about as many blocks.

 

I don't know if this helps but I found it interesting.

http://www.jimsperformance.com/blocks.html

 

Hey Allen,

You might remember me, Mike at Buyavette in Atlanta...I decode all the cars here (with your book of course) and write up all the descriptions for the cars here. Also helped you set up the media stuff back when you did a presentation here on project C4orce.

I have a couple engines at home that I can check as they're currently out of my car. I believe the first one to be numbers matching for my 91 T/A -- it's an LB9 305 TPI. I also have (what I was told) a 1986 LB9 305 TPI that I bought off eBay. Let me know if I can pull any numbers off either of those for you.

 

i have the orig 305 F code from my FORMULA and its still completly intact heads and block wise as it came from GM. let me know what ya wanna know.

 

Could you tell me the block and head casting numbers (along with any others) along with the VIN and build date of the car if you have it?

 

Hey Mike..great to hear from you. Hope all is well in Atlanta! Yeah..if you could pull all the casting numbers you can along with a VIN or build date of the car..that would be awesome! Tell Jimmy and Greg I said hi!

 

Doing well here Alan -- I'll tell Greg and Jimmy you said hello.

Can definitely get you a VIN, build date, and some casting numbers off the engine, probably this Sunday. Let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

 

my head casting # is 14101081
block is 14093627
and my build date of my car is 12/88. i would tell ya the month and date time on the heads if i knew how to read them and id tell ya the same on the block if i could find the clock on it as well.

 

Okay, here's what I got.

Engine # 1 (numbers matching LB9 305 TPI for my 1991 Trans Am)
Engine Casting Number: 14093627
Casting Date: A050
Stamp Pad: V0125CLH/2ML205516
Car Build Date (according to compnine.com): 3/28/90

Engine # 2 (bought on eBay, LB9 305 TPI supposedly removed from 1986 Trans Am)
Engine Casting Number: 14088551
Casting Date: K145
Stamp Pad: V1120DDS/2GN216862
Driver Head Casting: 14014416
Driver Head Casting Date: I275
Passenger Head Casting: 14014416
Passenger Head Casting Date: J255

Turns out the driver's side valve cover is still attached to the head on the '91 engine...I don't really have a way to get it off at the moment, although I do have the passenger's side head off the car and can check the numbers on that if you need it. Let me know, I will need to do some extensive cleaning to read the numbers as this was pretty much the dirtiest/most worn out engine I've ever seen in any car ever.

Let me know if I can be of assistance with any other numbers as well. I've pretty much got this car completely torn apart at this point.

 

Thanx..yeah..if you can check the head you have off the '91, that would be great.

 

After some extension digging and degreasing (you should've seen this head!), I was able to find the numbers. 14101081 is the casting number on that head...casting date is A160. Let me know if you need any other numbers.

 

Are you online?

 

my casting date is J138.