I bought a 15th anniversary edition trans am and have started the process of restoring it to roadworthy condition. Started tearing down the engine and found rust on the crank and lots of rust particles in the oil pan.

I started noticing some things that had obviously been modified. The pistons had 2 valve reliefs instead of 4, I believe they are .030 over, and the cam was a high energy comp with a double roller timing chain. The dipstick is on the driver’s side too, and everything I look at says it should be on the passenger side.

I started digging into casting numbers and this one is 460778, which shows to be a 78-79 block. I’m assuming it had an engine swap at some point? If it’s not the original block then just build out a 350 block to a stroker?

Any opinions?

 

that is an odd one -looks like 305 bore size,but there is a 400 crank damper...Someone my have built a 334 305 stroker...

 

Guess I’ll find out soon enough. Gonna pull it this weekend and see what the damage is. There is some carbon buildup at the top of the cylinders so my measurements aren’t true, but they are measuring out 3.745.

 

I always thought 334s were odd, but they done some around the early 1990s. Close to "square" engine-bore and stroke about the same dimension. RH dipstick started with 1980 production SBCs,so that is an early 305 block.

 

So I confirmed that it does have a stroker crank and what look like .030 over Keith Black pistons with eagle rods and ARP rod bolts. I’ll try to get it out sometime this next week and get it to a machine shop for inspection and cleanup. Hopefully most of it will be reusable.