Okay I just got a mild 355. I have already run into a problem and the engine is still on the stand! The problem is with the accessory holes in the heads. Here is the picture of the front of the engine. If you can't see it the front of the drivers side head has 3 accessory holes in it and the front of the passenger's side head has 1 bolt hole in it. Here is a picture of the back of the engine. The back side of the driver's side head has 1 bolt hole and the back side of the passenger's side head has 3 bolt holes. This means that no matter what I will only have 1 accessory bolt hole on the front of the passenger side head. The heads casting numbers are 3998993. Could I drill and tap a hole in this head? Is it even necessary since my accessory bracket uses 4 mounts, two of which are in the block and one already has a hole in the head; so I would only be missing one mount. Plus there is the brace that goes to the intake and the brace that goes to the header. So can I drill and tap, ignore the one missing bolt hole(actually two), or take off these heads and throw them in the trash can(I hope not, $ is very tight)?
Thanks,
Brady

 

I should add this isnt a new engine, I think it is a 1972 block.

 

What you have is the standard small block head setup.

 

yeah what sitting bull said, what's the problem, that's how gm wanted it to be and how they made all the brackets to work.

 

i know. i will check again but i am pretty sure that the passeners side bracket for the AC compressor and smog pump uses TWO mounts in the head.

 

ttt

 

That can't possibly be true cause his serpentine brakcets use 2 bolts into the head on the passenger side which is where his question comes in.

 

ttt

 

examaple of Vortecs

 

if the passenger side bracket is all one piece like it was on my buddies 89 4.3 blazer, and has 4 or more bolts holding it on, you can do without one of them, as long as one goes into the head you'll be ok.

we swapped engines in the blazer, it only has 2 bolts holding the passenger bracket on cuz some of the bolts grew legs and ran away, and we were on a tight schedule, he has no i'll effects, more than 10k miles later

 

thanks for the reply