Supposed to be a 350 out of a 74 1/2ton
Casting# 3970010
Supposed to be 4 bolt.

Buddy is getting me the head casting # .

Wondering what this thing is.. how good is the block. .. I know some 350's are better then others..

Buddy wants to trade me, (im thinking partial) .. for my 89TA 305TPI motor and computer and remainder of the harness.. which everything is in VG cond. and clean.. for this old 350, which he says is "complete" .. and ran good except for small exhaust leak..

 

Looks rather like a Chevy 350.

Pretty ordinary block. About the single most common 70s casting. No better or worse than usual.

Make sure it doesn't have either The Starter Problem, or The Lifter Bore Problem.

The heads are junk, if they're the 74 truck heads. Typically they'll be 882 or 624 casting. EEeeeewwwwww. You'd do FAR better with your 305 TPI heads, than anything that would have come on any such truck.

It really makes very little difference, if any, whether it has the 3 center caps with the 2 extra bolts installed on it; especially not if it's going to have TPI on it.

 

compliments of www.mortec.com
3970010....350...69-80...2 or 4


compliments of www.nastyz28.com
1969-79 3970010 350 185 370 2 or 4 car, truck, Vette

 

What RB said.

What induction setup do you plan to run on the 350 once in your car?

I'm not sure I'd make that trade. But, it's your car, your decision.

 

sorry.. should have clarified myself a bit.. the 305 is out of my car.. but i put an LT1 in it.. I'm trying to sell the motor or make a trade of some sort.. Wasn't going to take an old wore out engine on 1:1 trade.. but it if was something a bit special and wore out.. well maybe.. If i ran this engine in anything, it would have a holly carb on it. I've been there done that on the fuel injection

What is the "Starter prob" and the "Lifter bore problem" ? or how do i identify it?

buddy wants this 305tpi to put in his 39chev.. seems he likes wiring stuff.. would be a complete custom harness
anyway..

thanks

 

You've got a complete 305 TPI taking up garage space. He has a 350 that is at least a core that you might be able to use in some future project.

That trade I can see. 1:1 sounds about right.

If I was him, though, I'd pay you $300 for the 305 stuff and put it on the 350 in the '39. Since I don't have a '39 Chevy, and don't live in Nova Scotia, I'm obviously not him.

That doesn't mean the 350 is worth $300, understand. It just means that with the trade you'll both get rid of something you don't need and get something you might be able to use.

 

Starter Problem = starter bolt pattern drilled too far from crank centerline
Lifter Bore Problem = lifter bore(s) that don't point at the cam correctly

You identify them, by someone getting rid of a motor at an impossibly good price, coming up with some fish story about why they don't want it any more, and telling you that there's nothing wrong with it - running when pulled, ran great, and so forth. They just don't want it any more for some reason that isn't believable.

 

Mr. RB,

How could you check this on a block already in possession? Would save time and money spent unnecessarily.
Can they be fixed? Are these problems common to all small block dimesnions or just a specific cubic inch casting? I have also been told the Lifter Bore Problem was an old wives tale by machine shops.
I have also heard you could bore/hone the lifter bores to fix the problem and use a non-stock or custom lifter...
What say ye professor?

 

Usually, if a block has The Lifter Bore Problem, it will have already eaten several cams; and the lifter bores that are misaligned will have all sorts of shipping and scratching and other damage at the bottom of the bore. Of course, if the block has a munched cam in it, it's a good guess that it has that Problem.

You can't really tell about The Starter Problem very easily by just looking at the block. It's the thing that's responsible for causing engines to make that horrible grinding noise when they try to start, and they turn real slow; and shimming the starter makes it worse.

Either of those things will cause the typical owner to yank it out of his car and replace it. Then he'll want to sell it. He'll want to make damn sure it goes away, and at a good enough price that the person who bought it can't really complain. The motor will be sitting someplace fully assembled maybe even, with no obvious sign that it particularly needed to come out of service (especially true with The Starter Problem). He'll make up some ****-and-bull story about he put however much money in it and it ran great and barked the tires at every shift and his brother-in-law's uncle got sick and he was going to swap the timing set and he just pulled it out and never got around to it and now he wants to sell you this motor that he has $2000 in for $300 please take it. You can tell that a motor has that Problem, not by inspecting the motor, but by inspecting the owner.

If it has The Lifter Bore Problem, it's real easy to fix; by boring out the lifter bores, and putting F*rd or even AMC lifters in it. Problem with that is, it costs 4 times as much to have that done, as it does to pick up another junk block down at the local buzzard.

 

im learning here..

how be the 333882 castings heads? mortec says 76cc.. that about it.. nothing special?? not that im really expecting anything great out of a 1/2 ton.. lol

 

Some people say they're better than no heads at all, but others disagree.

 

you can fix the starter problem on one of those blocks by cutting the shims in half and only putting them on the outside bolt till you get the proper distance

 

LOL.. I'll assume then that they are nothing to write home about then.

 

882s are about the bottom of the barrel.

I'm one who would say that no heads at all, would be better than those. Especially if I'm the one having to haul it around. Less weight to schlepp, less teardown work, less big heavy trash to throw away afterwards.

 

882s make great door stops or anchors

 

gotcha.. . told buddy i didn't want the motor.. cash will do.. lol.. I'd probably just put it in the corner for 10yrs anyway.. since im about to buy a house..

I'll stick to the LT1 for now.