I was just wondering if there was any visual difference between a 305 and a 350 engine or do they basicly look identicle?

 

the only real ways to tell is possibly the casting number, or pull a head off.

is this motor in a car? the vin will tell you what it SHOULD be

 

Yeah besides looking up the casting number or the VIN number, there is really no way of telling. The engines are identicle.

 

On the back of the engine just above where the tran bolts on will be a number cast in teh block. 5.0 is 305, 5.7 is 350. This is only on the newer engines I believe.

 

i have also heard that the harmonic balancer's are different sizes

 

From the factory perhaps, yes. But neither that nor the VIN is a reliable way to know unless you're 100% sure the engine has never been swapped. And if you knew that, you wouldn't be trying to find the displacement now... Look above the transmission bolts, cast on the back of the block on the driver's side.

If it's too hard to read the casting number, I believe someone on here once said you can park the car sideways on a 45 degree incline, then rotate the crankshaft until one of the pistons is at the absolute bottom of its stroke. Pull a sparkplug and fill that cylinder with oil. Measure the amount of oil. Multiply by 8.

 

Thats ok, I think I could get motivated to read the casting number...

 

Kinda my point. You gotta read that casting number.

Of course, there's a remote chance somebody changed the crank. You could be looking at a 327 stamped "5.7." (Or a 383 for that matter...)