Please excuse the newbie question, but were 5.7L TPI engines available in non-IROC Z28's in 1988?

I just bought a TPI engine that was supposed to be a 5.7L but I don't remember seeing the IROC stickers under the door of the donor car. Should I be worried? As soon as I get home I'm going to pull the heads and measure the bores.

 

It's possible that that car had the decal delete option which became available in that year. Look at the back drivers side of the engine. It will either say 5.0 or 5.7.

IROC-Z cars were the only ones that got the 5.7. It could be possible that someone special ordered the engine in the car, but I doubt it. Was the car auto or manual? Did you check the vin number on the car?

 

Could be you bought your self a 305 engine???

 

Could be someone swapped in a 350. Check the casting number at the back of the block behind the driver's side head against Mortec.com to see exactly what you have.

 

yes it coulda been a swap or maybe a 305 (you cant tell the diff between a 305 tpi and a 350 unless you rip it up) Check the VIN, and decode it on our Vin Decoder, It will tell you the if its a 350 or 305

 

It was a 305!

I popped the heads off and saw the itty bitty 3.73 bores. At least it has a roller cam. The seller didn't know it was a 305 either. He's not a thirdgen afficionado, just parting out a car that he inheritted. Long story. I think we'll be able to work something out though.

PS: It was an auto.

 

Yea, the seller didn't know. Thats why he sold it as a 350, he knew that much and not as 305. Dumb like a fox.

 

Like a foot in the a$$. j/k
Hope everything works out for you man, sorry that you had to find out the wrong way.

 

FYI, there was no "z28" in 88. The IROC package replaced the Z28 that year. The only V8 available in a non-IROC that year was the L03 tbi 305.

 

Whats the easiest way to find out the difference.

Not to say there's an easy way, but which takes the least amount of time. And what exactly should one look for?

 

tell the difference between what? Car models or engines?

To tell the difference between models, you can check the RPO codes, or if they're missing, having knowledge of the differences between models helps.

For the engines, if you know it's the original motor, the 8th VIN digit will tell you. If you're not sure whether it's the original motor or not, you've got to get the numbers off the block and run them an mortec.com.

 

Where are the numbers on the block?

 

This gives all of the locations including the dates.
http://www.mortec.com/location.htm