My brother's high school automotive class will no longer be taught next year, and they're going to be giving some stuff away. They have this engine/tranny bolted together that came out of a Caprice and it's supposedly a 350. My brother got this number off of it: 397002C . Does that mean anything to you guys? Not sure what part he got it off of. I just found it in a note on my desk.

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1986 Firebird, LG4 305, bored .040 over, Crane cam, Edelbrock headers, Hooker Aerochamber muffler, loud and fast.

"Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire!" - Metallica, "Fuel"

 

3970020 was a 307 block in the early 70s... 3970010 was a 350 block for many years, from about 69 until at least 79, very common 350 casting. No casting number ends with a letter, so if you're sure it's a 2 in the 6th digit, it's almost certainly the 020 casting.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

Thing is... This engine supposedly came out of the last generation of Caprice.

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1986 Firebird, LG4 305, bored .040 over, Crane cam, Edelbrock headers, Hooker Aerochamber muffler, loud and fast.

"Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire!" - Metallica, "Fuel"

 

Maybe so... but the factory didn't put it there.

http://www.mortec.com/castnum.htm

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

It's quite possible he got the number wrong, but the car was ordered straight from the factory by the township of Nutley, NJ. Not sure if it was a police car or just a municipal car, but it was donated to the high school because the car had body defects (hood was f@#$ed up).

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1986 Firebird, LG4 305, bored .040 over, Crane cam, Edelbrock headers, Hooker Aerochamber muffler, loud and fast.

"Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire!" - Metallica, "Fuel"

 

Many ways to find out besides the casting number, casting numbers arent reliable because they were reused The easy way is to look at the balancer is it the big one or small one? the big ballancer was used on 350's and the small one on 305's. But then again not reliable if engine was swapped and 305 ballancer was used.
second is to pull the oil pan to see if its a 4 or 2 bolt main. Heavy duty aps like police vehicals/Emergeny fire ambulance ect used 4.
But still it can be a 350 2 bolt main so again not reliable. Third and this one sucks is to pull the head and compare the space between cylanders a 305 spacing has more meat than a 350. then you can check the piston. 305's are flat or semi dished No valve releifs in middle. Most likly a 350 "stock piston" will have valve releifs in the middle. But hey if there giving it away with a trans its worth having even if its a 305.


[This message has been edited by SUPER-SPORT-CHEVY (edited March 28, 2001).]