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trying to id my engine.

xXamwxxXx

xXamwxxXx

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so today somebody was trying to tell me my engine is a 305. Now I have nothing against the 305. i had one in a 79 caprice and it was a great motor, but I'm pretty sure mines a 350. Looked online for the locations of any codes to help me figure this out but i'm not finding any. Where are they located? Am I looking from the top or the bottom? This is driving me crazy.
 
could my alternator be in the way? im gonna have to wait til tomorrow, just went out for another look and the misquotes are thirsty. thx for the info.
 
Yes your alt may be in the way if it is mounted up on the passenger side.

If you can look at the base of the front of the head there is a small ( 1/2" X 2" ) flat spot that the engine block sticks out in front of the base of the head that will have numbers stamped into the block. Get those numbers and let us know what they are and someone will give you a web site to look up the numbers or they might be able to tell you what it is by the numbers on their own. This is only going to be accurate as to what the engine was from the factory, you will need to decide if it has ever been rebuilt or bored out to a larger bore. The numbers will tell you exactly what the engine came in wether it was a car or pickup as well.

If you can get a mirror or crane your neck enough there is sometimes a raised lettering casting at the back of the head on the drivers side of the block that will say 5.7 if it is a 350.
 
bradshawtech said:
Yes your alt may be in the way if it is mounted up on the passenger side.

If you can look at the base of the front of the head there is a small ( 1/2" X 2" ) flat spot that the engine block sticks out in front of the base of the head that will have numbers stamped into the block. Get those numbers and let us know what they are and someone will give you a web site to look up the numbers or they might be able to tell you what it is by the numbers on their own. This is only going to be accurate as to what the engine was from the factory, you will need to decide if it has ever been rebuilt or bored out to a larger bore. The numbers will tell you exactly what the engine came in wether it was a car or pickup as well.

If you can get a mirror or crane your neck enough there is sometimes a raised lettering casting at the back of the head on the drivers side of the block that will say 5.7 if it is a 350.
Click to expand...

This is only found on 1986 and later engines with the one piece rear main seal.
 
Fred_M1010 said:
Don't you mean the casting on the block?
I don't have a lot of experiance from newer engines though, so you're probably right.

Even if the block casting number doesn't spell out the cid, you can check the numbers against this list:
http://www.nastyz28.com/sbchevy/sblock.php

Here's some help on how to find the different numbers:
http://www.yearone.com/updatedsinglepages/Id_info/gm_engine_id/engineinfo6.html
Click to expand...

Yes, the casting at the rear of the engine that says 5.0 or 5.7 is only found on 1986-later engines. The number that is STAMPED into a pad in front of the passenger side cylinder head will give EXACT info on the engine unlike a casting number that is also located on the driver side bellhousing area.
 
well, i dont know what to say, even with the alternator off there are no numbers to be found. weird.
 
Did you see the "pad" or the area that I spoke about? If you did and there weren't any numbers then the engine has been "decked" at some point which means that it has been gone through.

This is not a bad thing as maybe the engine is fresh.
 
yea the pad is there, it does look like it may have had some taken off at some point. Oh well. the engine does look and feel somewhat fresh. Whoever had it before me had put one of those edelbrock set-ups on it with the valve covers, intake manifold and carb so maybe they did the insides too. Seems to run right using the plugs I got for a 350 so I will just assume. Thanks for the help, one of these days i will get a real account but right now the money is more then I can part with. Its on the list though!
 
Well, you could pull one of the plugs, make sure that that piston is at bottom dead center, fill the cylinder with water, and then........

But its probably not that important, huh?

Tell you what, post the year and the VIN and we can give you the engine size from the code.
Course its probably been changed out in the past, but at least you will have an answer that might ease your mind.
Not necessarily the right one, but an answer none the less.
 
vin number is 1G8EK18H9DF118755 from what I can tell from the vin the truck came with a 305. I cant see the other number at the top of the motor at all. well, all I can say is that my blazer gets crappy mileage for a 305. ha.
 
Ok, so tell me how your friend is so sure that it is a 305.

If he is going by the engine sticker on the core support in front of the radiator then it may well say 5.0 which if the core support is original to this truck then it did have a 305 to begin with.

There is not any way to definately tell from the outside of the engine wether it is a 305 or a 350. ( Please fellas, lets not start the freeze plug count discussion again. )

You say it runs well then trust it to give you many happy miles.

When you have time one day, take a look at the engine from underneath by the starter and see if there is a small coin sized piece of metal "glued" into one of the freeze plugs. the freeze plugs are holes in the side of the block roughly 2" in diameter with metal "cups" pressed into them.

If you see one of these coin sized pieces glued into one of the freeze plugs then your engine was remanufactured by a shop with a warranty program. This coin sized metal might have numbers on it that might give us some direction as to who rebuilt the engine.

Long post to give you details that you might not want or need but there it is.

Details on the rig would help as well.

Welcome to the site. Don't sweat the membership dues as there are many people on here with tight budgets but they still bring something to the group. Pay when you can as it opens up the site to many cool features for you.
 
bradshawtech said:
There is not any way to definately tell from the outside of the engine wether it is a 305 or a 350. ( Please fellas, lets not start the freeze plug count discussion again. )
Click to expand...

That is a 400 thing, it would have nothing to do with determining if it was either a 305 or a 350.

Martin
 
what do the numbers near the motor mounts tell you? Mine said 207, and it's a 350. But I dunno nothin.
 
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