I am trying to find out if my motor is the 305 tpi or 350tpi, and I have read everywhere online and its all very confusing to me when trying to find the blocks code.
The motor is in a 1989 s10 so i cant look anywhere but on the motor, and i cant pull it as im only 15years old and not capable of that YET.
So i tried looking behind distributer and the block ends at the same spot of the distributer so no luck there, and i looked everywhere for the stamp, please help and explain thouroghly where to look, thanx

Oh and i was told its an 1986 350 but im thinking its a 87 350 or 86 305 so i need to find the date as well, thanx

 

THe odds of a motor that's been swapped being untouched and identical to what the "stamp" says, are probably less than .0000001%.

IOW, that "stamping" code, even if it hadn't been decked off during the "rebuild" that's the reason you can't find the one on your block, would only tell you what THE BLOCK came in; wouldn't tell you SQUAT about what THE MOTOR is NOW.

Anybody can take a "LT-1" BLOCK "out of a Vette", and jam "rebuilder" deep-dish cast pistons, a 929 replica cam, and a set of 624 or 187 junk heads on it; and that "stamping" code will STILL proudly proclain "LT-1" "out of a Vette", even though THE MOTOR that was built out of it, is LESS THAN what THE LOWEST PHONE COMPANY VAN has in it.

Or conversely, take THE BLOCK out of a 160 HP 350 2-bbl phone company van, zero-deck it, put Arias pistons and a Callies crank and a solid roller cam and sky's-the-limit heads on it, and it'll make 600 HP and LIVE INDEFINTELY DOING SO, and the "stamping" will still say "phone company van".

So abandon all that "what it came out of" crap. It's GONE, never to return, and has lost any and all meaning.



You can however tell whether it's a 305 or a 350 by THE CASTING NUMBER. It's conveniently located in the most accessible and easily viewed place on the whole motor: on top of the bell housing flange, behind and below the back end of the driver's side head.

In the pic, the date is in that little oval area just to the right of the rectangle. Can't really read it in the pic. It will look something like F125; that particular code would translate to the 12th day of the Fth (6th) month, June, in a year ending in 5.

 

it looks like its where the tranny and motor meet, which i have a distributer there lol.
Could i see it from the driver side looking at motor from the quarter panel and down or is it like directly beside my distributer as i looked there earlier and i have wrapped wires there which i cant move without braking the wire loom plastic

 

k

 

well i just went and looked and the block ends right at the edge of the valve covers end unlike ur motor in pic

 

so do i have to remove motor just to see the numbers or is there another way as i see now the block goes down after valves and its there, but i can see it when looking down the back of motor

 

sometimes the block will have the last 3 #s of block casting numbers cast in large numbers on side of block-my 1984 "207"350 block has this-slip under and look

 

I wish trust me i have looked over every inch but the back where the tranny and motor meet, and its because i cant see back there since my firewall on this s10 is right next to motor, so i guess there will be no way to ever know for sure.
But i heard something about there being a number under the valve covers? Which i just bought a set of so where should i check when installing on which side?

 

the head number will give a clue to the size of the engine -if engine is '86 350 as thought,last 3#s of head casting #will likely be '624-a common head used on most ~1978-86 pass. car and light truck 350s.Sometimes people will install 305 heads on 350s.

 

are the heads numbers visible with the valve cover off?

 

wait do yo mean the piston heads or the block heads