i think ive been had

[ole_blue_72]

Well earlier today i was out side lookin were to start on stoping the oil leaks on ole blue. well i noticed the orange paint is kinda pealing off were the oil has leaked on it. the engine was blue at least i know the oil pan was cant tell but i believe the block was to. have to clean everything up better to get the #s off it. but there was a few i got off the side of the block z-207. anyone know what that may mean or if the motor was all blue what it may have came out of. and were exactly is the #'s at front drivers side under the head?

[Jimbotronics]

Are referring the block #s? They should be on the back of the block, drivers side. Once you get the #s goto www.mortec.com

[krue]

What he said.

[ole_blue_72]

ok thanks back of the block drivers side below the head also when did gm start using the hei type distributor

[Jim_PA]

Originally Posted by ole_blue_72

ok thanks back of the block drivers side below the head also when did gm start using the hei type distributor

HEI was 1975.

[ole_blue_72]

umm well it ahs a hei distributor that is the one with the little box in the middle right

[ThatOneBlue67]

It's a noticeably larger unit than the stock points version and will probably say "Delco-Remy" or something. It does have a"little box" in the center, yes.

[Longhorn Man]

blue paint started in 77 IIRC... when they became 'corperate' engines... after the Olds guys won a court case claiming to have been mislead.

[Ole Blue 68]

Just cause it's got HEI don't mean the engine ain't older. A previous owner could have switched over from points.

[ole_blue_72]

i thought that it may have been switched over or something but then the blue paint i will get the numbers today after work

[Blazer1970]

Blue is definitely a newer engine.

[special-K]

How were you had?Was the truck supposed to be all original?Was the motor supposed to be rebuilt,original,or #s-matching?Give us some background.BTW,GMC painted their identical to Chevy 4-bolt motors blue in these trucks.The #s-matching thing can only apply to being specific,at best,to that year truck,not model or specific vehicle.So,a GMC correct sized motor from the year of your Chevy would still be correct(Whatever year/brand you have.Like I said,give us more info.You can put your truck in your signature in the user control panel.

[RSRXION]

With respect to numbers..... On the passenger side of the block, just forward of the head you'll find a machined pad that is facing you as you look into the engine bay over the passenger side fender. Usually the alternator is mounted in front of and slightly higher than this pad. If the block has not been decked you'll find at least one set of numbers and usually two. One of these is a partial VIN for the vehicle the block was initially installed in.

Please get me these numbers and I'll be happy to look your engines original application up in my handy little reference guide. It is my own home made book using original GM info and has never been wrong in 20 years of use. The block casting numbers etc... are typically just an indicator of what the engine block COULD HAVE BEEN installed in. With the numbers I speak of I can tell you EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS installed in. The only exception to my claim would be as a result of the numbers being machined off of the block through the decking process and restamped by a machine shop. Decking the block is common but restamping is very uncommon. Usually only shady restoration people trying to build a " numbers matching " vehicle will restamp the blocks and claim them to be original to the car or truck. I doubt that is the case here. Get those for me and I can solve your mystery promptly. Thanks, Dean

[JustLiveIt]

Originally Posted by RSRXION

With respect to numbers..... On the passenger side of the block, just forward of the head you'll find a machined pad that is facing you ... One of these is a partial VIN for the vehicle the block was initially installed in...

If the motor is a crate motor there will not be a VIN on the pass side in front of the head. Mine is a 1994 crate 350 and to identify it I had to use the #'s on the driver side where the trans bolts up.

[RSRXION]

You are absolutely correct that a crate motor probably won't have these numbers. However, the casting numbers you refer to are simply that, casting numbers. Since castings were used for many, many years they are not accurate in identifying the actual date of manufacture of an engine and they will be of little value when determining application. The casting date code will tell you when the block was manufactured but it does not stipulate when it was assembled into a finished assembly.

For example a block casting number of 3963512 tells us that the block was a 427 or 454 used from 1969-1971 in either 2 or 4 bolt main bearing configuration. HOWEVER , an alpha code ( like I asked for ) of LR tells us that this engine is a 4 bolt main originally installed in a 1969 427 Tri-Power Corvette with aluminum heads , " Special High Performance" rated at 435 horsepower with a 4 speed and "heavy duty " clutch.

The alpha code and the accompanying numerics mean everything when identifying an engines original application.

JMHO, Dean

[JustLiveIt]

I agree with you 100% and I was not trying to discredit anything you said. My point was that if you have a crate motor you may not be able to get all that info. I know my motor was a crate motor but it would be nice to know exactly what it shipped with originally.

[Aarons72s]

My orange and white had a replacement engine installed back in 73. The front pad should have engine specification code just no vin code. I have helped put in some newer replacement 350s in some vehicles and on the front pad they just have an engine code stamped on it.

[JustLiveIt]

Originally Posted by Aarons72s

My orange and white had a replacement engine installed back in 73. The front pad should have engine specification code just no vin code. I have helped put in some newer replacement 350s in some vehicles and on the front pad they just have an engine code stamped on it.

Hmm... I will scrape some more junk off that area and see if I have an engine code there.

Thanks to both Aarons72s and RSRXION!

[ole_blue_72]

well the alt is on the drivers side and i didnt find the numbers they may be there but there is alot of paint and some oilfrom the valve covers leaking so it may be covered up. and yes the truck was sold to me to have the original 350 in it but thats not a big deal just the deal of it possably not being a 350 is what makes me mad. the heads have 2 small triangles side by side close to the intakes and a friend told me that these heads only came on 283's and i believe 307's or maybe 305s i cant remember. and a 283 is not what i want. goin to try and find some numbers be back later thanks

[RSRXION]

No offense taken at all on my end guys. The crate motors were usually new pieces like Target Masters etc...weren't they ? I thought most of them were all new pieces or were they remanufactured ?

Ole Blue, does your engine have a seven digit number ending in 010 cast on the back lip of the block just above the transmission bellhousing bolts ? USUALLY , but not always this casting denotes 350. I had been led to believe that it was always true but others claim that the 010 blocks were not all 350's.

I'll help any way that I can. Good luck on those numbers . Thanks, Dean

[Ole Blue 68]

Here's a good one for ya'll. When I bought my 68 last year, the guy I bought it from told me it had a 283 in it and since it looked like a 283 to me, I never bothered to check the casting numbers. A few months later, rather than replace a leaking rear main seal on the 283 I just swapped it out for a 350. Since I was planning on selling the 283, I decided to run the numbers so I had the info for any prospective buyer. So, I ran the numbers and guess what? Turns out the damn thing was a 350 after all....Even my buddies who pulled the engine thought it was a 283.

On the bright side, I wound up with a freshly built 350 and was able to recoop some of the cost by selling that #$%& 283/350.

[57sailplane]

the numbers which it has already been mentioned are on the front of the block on the passenger side just below the head and block seem..

you got me interested now..

let us know what it is..

[jooooooe]

I'm with special-K, I don't understand "had"......the incorrect motor isn't really gonna' change the value or worth unless it was an original BB vehicle, and that would be an obvious thing.

[ole_blue_72]

well i finaly ran down my buddy who is a sbc genous (<- spelling) we ran the numbers on the block came back to be a 80-85 model pu motor 350 4 bolt main, we also pulled the valve covers the heads are off a 73 model pu witch came stock with 202 and 260 valves. hear is the good part it has some things done to the head it has pushrod guides or something i cant remember what there called and doubble valve springs. taking this in mind we tuned on the q-jet and was noticing it had some spark knock thats with 93 so im figuring it has some pretty high compression and when the q-jet was set it had a noticable lope. now for the bad part. i traded the q-jet right after we got it remptly right for a 650 holley. it sucks

[ole_blue_72]

with the holley the brakes isnt as good like a lack of vacume. and is dead on topend and sluggish on bottom well to be honest it doesnt run as good as it did with the q-jet at all. but acordin to my friend i dont need the vacume advance on my distributor so he pluged it off i need to get the proper fitting to put the vacume for the braked in the back of the intake. and the carb has only 2 small vacume ports on it but i need 3 so i can hook the 2 hoses from the vacume canister to and then one for the distributor to. the only 2 i can find is in the front one on the front and to the passenger side of the carb and one directly under the front bowl the i have the big vacume hookup on the rear passenger side. any help with the tuning of this carb would be great. and rsrxion you was right the numbers was there on the front passenger side of the motor just covered in some oil. thanks alot for the help