Okay Im the third owner of the car the first owner did all the auto work 2nd held it for a while and now I own it(I know horrible thing buying)what can I do to see what has been done to the motor everyone that rides says it doesn't feel like a stock 350 but Ive never driven a thirdgen so Im not sure what to expect but my question is how can I figure out what has been done to it or how stock it is I dont have much experience with things like this but any and all information and help will be appreciated thank you

 

A stock 84 wouldn't have been equipped with a 350. So did one of the previous owners swap one in?

JamesC

 

Sorry, double post.

JamesC

 

I'd say grab the block id codes and you could start with that. That'll tell you what is year range of block and what it started as. That won't tell you if someone has bored/stroked it, but at least gives you a base idea.

I grabbed a quick link for you off google with the id's tables. I've never used the site so I can't say it's actually correct, but here it is:
http://www.ajgeneral.com/sbc_block_casting_numbers/

 

even simpler test

drive to local track on test and tune night

pay admission (if you are under 18, mom or dad need to be there)

put on borrowed helmet

when the light turns green, drive 1/4 mile as quickly as possible

pick up time slip

if the first 2 numbers begin with 14 or 13 then it's not stock (you're on street tires)

if the first 2 numbers begin with 15 or higher, don't feel bad and just let your friends think what they want.

 

Yep - also no 350 was offered with the T5 - so if it has a 350 in it, it's been swapped in by a previous owner. Block ID will tell you for sure - get those and research on Google/whatever.

 

Well Ive already confirmed it's a 350 it's from a t400 cop car and yes the 1st owner swapped it in and if I do come to find out it ain't stock then how do I go about finding out what's been done and who has a general bolt on list for these carb motors?

 

What is a t400 police vehicle? Just curious.

JamesC

 

Externally, anyone should be able to tell - there will be brand names on anything not factory (intake, carb, etc.). Heads have numbers under the valve covers to research on net. Internally no way of telling unless the builder gives you a list, or you tear it down.

Simple exhaust can make additional 30hp. Rear gears can make a car feel much faster (and a factory 305 T5 car would have different gearing than a factory 350 auto car). Not sure what you want to hear really. There's no simple explaination for a car "feeling" faster than what a particular group of people 'think' it should be. And there's no way (short of tearing it all down) of knowing what mods have been done unless the PO gave you a list and you trust the list.

I am also curious on the t400 - twice I've seen it mentioned i the last month and I never heard of one.

 

No one ever seems to but when I look my engine code is says t400 police .... And it has a quadraject carb and performance eldb. Breather

 

Searched google...

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/need...ix-176932.html

 

okay so now that we have a little more info on it... on these 350 what can I do to put 250 to the wheel since they all seem to have the same compression and stroke be very specific plz

 

OK, i'll be very specific

first, I have no clue why there are assumptions by posters that their engines are all in great shape and have not suffered any loss through wear.

Step #1- go to a chassis dyno and pay for the 3 pulls and then average it out.

Step #2- perform a compression test on all cylinders

Step #3- put a vacuum gauge on the engine



I would venture to guess, if you are very lucky, that you might be in the 190's wheel HP. In other words, about what a manual tranny 2005-2010 v6 Mustang puts down with CAI and a tune.

If your compression is out of whack, and the vacuum gauge shows valve issues, then bolt ons won't help you nor will a cam.

So, being specific, baseline your engine. If you are at 200 RWHP ( miracle) then bolt ons will not get you 50 RWHP.

find your baseline, the health of your engine, and then come back to us and we can all engage in a more informed discussion.

Prior to doing any types of mods other than bolt ons, it makes good sense to baseline your car on a dyno and also to check the compression and vacuum. Why would I rip apart the top end, replace my cam, valve springs and push rods when my guides need work, my seats are awful and I have blow by inside my cylinders.

 

"T400", if it ever means anything, would probably refer to a transmission, and not anything to do with some car.

But since you won't tell us where you're coming up with this "T400" "police" drivel, it's impossible for us to anything more than just GUESS what you're even talking about.

That said, NONE of those block "codes" will give you the SLIGHTEST clue about what's in the engine, NOW. So you've got some numbers off of a BLOCK; all they tell you is what THE BLOCK came assembled as. What they DON'T tell you, is what it's assembled as NOW. All BLOCKS are basically equal, when it comes to power output. You can take the humblest BLOCK from the lowliest 75 Impala 2-barrel with 160 HP, and by choice of OTHER PARTS (heads, cam, pistons, etc.), turn it into a 600 HP race motor; and that 160 HP code WILL STILL BE SITTING THERE, plain as day, being MEANINGLESS. Or, you can take a BLOCK "from a Vette", and turn it into the most gutless turd imaginable; and that "Vette" code will STILL BE SITTING THERE, plain as day, EQUALLY MEANINGLESS.

Let's assume for the moment that your BLOCK did originate in some police car. Ever been around a government motor-pool operation before? They buy vehicles, and then employees use them; and they put them TO WORK. Police applications are some of the harshest: they sit around and idle for hours on end, then they stomp on the gas and chase somebody down the freeway, then they sit and idle for a while more, then they run them at WOT going to a burglary call, then they idle some more, then they floor it and run wide open to a domestic disturbance, ..... hour after hour, shift after shift, day after day, week after week, year after year. Then when the maintenance costs become higher than the price of a new one, they sell it and get another. If your motor came from that background, then its useful life was OVER at the point it came out of that car, and there is NO WAY it has NOT been "rebuilt". During a "rebuild", EVERY SINGLE PIECE that makes one engine different from another, is taken out and either thrown away or mixed up with the pieces of a hundred other random engines; and the cheeeepest of the cheeeeeep of everything to replace the wear parts - rings, bearings, gaskets, pistons, cam, and so on - are randomly jammed into ALL of them. When they come out of that process they are INDISTINGUISHABLE one from another, and have lost ALL TRACE of any individual identity they were born with.

So forget all about "T400" "police", whatever that is supposed to refer to is now MEANINGLESS and no longer applies to your ENGINE. The BLOCK retains no memory of whatever parts might have been associated with any of that, all of which are LONG GONE. Your BLOCK is now just a BLOCK the same as any other BLOCK, and the "codes" stamped on it means NOTHING any more.

If you want to know what the engine REALLY IS, the place to look is NOT the "codes" stamped on the BLOCK, which won't tell you what pistons the "rebuilder" jammed into it, how far they bored it, what heads they stuffed onto it, what cam they crammed into it, and so on; in short, the "codes" are COMPLETELY WORTHLESS for answering the question you are trying to ask.

The ONLY THING you can possibly to do find out what's in your engine, is to take it apart and look at it. None of us here can tell you what the "rebuilder" put in it. The "codes" don't tell you what the "rebuilder" put in it. No web site knows that. Hell, you might even be able to somehow track down the "rebuilder" and ASK em, and THEY might not even know what's in it, because most of em use the cheeeepest of the cheeeeeep of all the available generic cheeeeepness in the world, and that changes from time to time, and they usually don't keep any records at all because it's a waste of time. Now, the engine simply IS what it IS, and the only way to know what it IS (as opposed to obsessing over what the BLOCK USED TO BE associated with), is to see what it IS.

I hope this helps you understand to quit bothering with that useless stamping "code", and start paying more attention to THE PARTS THEMSELVES. The first one you should get is the casting # off the back of the block; that will tell you what size motor it is, or at least, what the bore diameter is, which at least is unambiguous, since GM re-used the stamping codes from year to year, those can have any of several meanings, and not just the one from the list of possibilities that you happen to like the best. But the block casting # DOES NOT LIE, it ALWAYS will tell you what the bore size is; either the 283 bore, or the 267 bore, or the 302/327/350 bore, or the 305 bore, or the 400 bore. Then, get the head casting #; this will tell you if you have large-chamber low-compression low-performance smogger castings from the 70s (highly likely as they're BY FAR the most common), TBI heads, or heads with some performance potential, or what.

The cam and pistons are a little tougher. The VAST majority of "rebuilt" motors end up with a generic copy of the GM "929" cam, which has about 194°/204° of duration @ .050" and about .390"/.410" lift. I would guess that probably 95% of all "rebuilt" motors get that cam, if for no other reason than about 95% of all stock motors came with it, and EVERY supplier of cheeeeeep cams for rebuilds, supplies it. You could measure the lift at a rocker arm and figure out if it's that, or at least something close. Pistons, only way to know is to expose them, top and bottom; that means, heads off, crank out, pstons out of the block. Probably not worth doing, just to find out they're some generic unidentifiable cheeeeeepest of the cheeeeeeeep "rebuilder" junk, which is unfortunately highly likely.

None of the "T400" "police" "codes" will tell you ANY of that.

A more realistic approach is to simply assume the worst (that's what I would do if it were mine, to tell you the truth) because that's probably what it is; and then if it REALLY matters to you, start saving up your money to buy what you want, and start learning how to build engines so you can make it into what you want. Meantime, don't obsess on the "codes", because whatever they mean and whatever they COULD tell you about what engine THE BLOCK was originally surrounded by, is NO LONGER TRUE.

And, if you want to know what the engine's ACTUAL performance is NOW, you could do one of the things Mr Torque suggested up there; run it at the track, or dyno it. What it does, is what it does; and the "codes" are of no consequence to that, either. That won't tell you what's IN the engine, but at least it will tell you what it's capable of NOW.

 

that was just beautiful and I concur.

To the OP, first nobody is being mean or cruel to you. I frequent a few auto forums for my various vehicles. The one thing I have noticed about TGO is there are posters who will speak straight and even offer common sense tips. The common sense portion is invaluable and tends to be spoken from the voices of experience, and maturity, not something they think they heard or read.

What you have is an undocumented 20+ year old car. Heck, read through this forum and you'll see thread upon thread of people who want to put, what I would call a piece of crap engine into their vehicle.Just think, some day they will sell that car with that piece of crap engine to perhaps an unsuspecting buyer like you who is starry eyed because he has a camaro with a 350.

You have been given advice on how to inexpensively baseline your car, track or dyno. If the thing runs 12's on the 1/4 will you really care what's in it? If the thing dyno's at the wheels at sub 190 RWHP which is more in line with where I think you'll be, then what's in it also doesn't matter because you need to rip it open to get any performance improvement.

When someone walks up the front steps to your parents house for the first time, and knocks on the door, will they know what color your sofa is before they enter the home....................it's a house isn't it? Shouldn't all sofas be the same.............

 

x3 on the dyno. take it to a chassis dyno and see where you're at. Or just start from scratch on a new engine or rebuilding that one. Being an older car that's been sitting a while, probably wouldn't hurt to have it rebuilt anyway, but if you're using it as a driver then building a new one from scratch means less downtime.

 

Exactly... we're not attacking you, just trying to disabuse you of the typical n00b notion that those "codes" actually can tell you anything of value.

You gotta understand, EVERY SBC head made since 1955 (up to the LT1) fits on EVERY block, and EVERY block accepts EVERY cam, and so on. It's not like .... some other brands ..... where if you have a particular block, then only particular other parts will hook up to it. That's the beauty of Chevy V8s, and why they're so popular: EVERYTHING interchanges among EVERY one. The possible combinations are literally ENDLESS. I'm positive you could build a motor for EVERY car in existence, and make NO 2 OF THEM the same, there's THAT MUCH interchangeability, and there would be no doubt of that at all if you included aftermarket parts. Of course, that's not only the beauty, but also the curse; some combos are TERRIFIC, some (most) are AWFUL. The most common ones, which (suprise!) are the ones you would run across most often, are pretty freaking lame. It takes a little effort (not alot, but some) to build one that's better than average.