Mystery motor heads. casting number pics..very very odd

[78Suburban]

Well, I found the numbers on my old '78 350, but I'm not going to post those here, to avoid confusion. ALL THE PICS AND NUMBERS IN THIS POST ARE FROM MY MYSTERY MOTOR. I KNOW ITS A SBC, BUT THAT'S HONESTLY THE EXTENT OF WHAT I KNOW.

What I'm concerned with here is the motor I bought recently. I was told it was from a '73 camaro and is a 350, but I was also told it ran good, and we all know how that went. This motor is really throwing me for a loop. It is supposed to have a flat little plate behind the alternator, right above the water pump on the block, right? WRONG. my other motor does, but not this bad boy. its kinda a really long (5 inches) slated area, not like the regular place for casting numbers. The block is clean, but I thought I MIGHT have seen a hint of a number or two on the block in this location, but I can't be sure... its reallly odd.

Now for the heads. These are throwing me for a loop. I was able to get the numbers off of the heads on my old motor.....but this motor has some really weird junk on the heads.

The Passenger side head:

up front....8888888

in the center......GM2

The Driver side head:

in the back.........8888888

in the center............GM4

up front..............AX28_____2 the two is spaced way away, and the X is questionable.. it could be a K or a slash.

So what in the world are these heads??? They are really throwing me for a loop.
thanks

 

[78Suburban]

upon close inspection

now that I look at it..........it may be 3986336....

which, according to http://www.mortec.com/castnum.htm is
71......350..........76cc chamber

pic of the passenger head is upside down, btw......

The number off my old heads (not the pictured ones) is
462624

which is

75-86...350/400......76cc chamber, 1.72/1.5, 1.94/1.5 or 2.02/1.6 valves

 

[ryan22re]

the stamping pad in the first picture indicates an earlyish block. like pre 74ish. they got smaller as they tried to make the castings more lightweight. look for the two or three letter code stamped on that pad. that'll nail it down.

 

[78Suburban]

the stamping pad in the first picture indicates an earlyish block. like pre 74ish. they got smaller as they tried to make the castings more lightweight. look for the two or three letter code stamped on that pad. that'll nail it down.

thanks

 

[SUBFAN]

Those look to be 889 heads....small valve, large chamber, generic....

 

[3 on the tree]

The last pic, with the clock looking thing, is, I believe the actual casting date. If the block has been decked, the #s on the pad would have been milled off.

 

[78Suburban]

I don't think I'll be swapping my heads from my other motor after all. I just may be able to salvage these heads. I figured they were nothing special. I surely don't know what GM was thinking when they made 8's, 6's, 3's, and 9's look EXACTLY the same.