Cascade Crew

['92 camaro boss]

Okkkk, so i'm sure it's been brought up, quite possibly by me. not 100%

but i have a (i'm told 350) block

i've got the casting number off the rear of the motor and it reads 3970010

googled that and a few sites vary, all agree that after 69 it was always a 350
but before then other sites say it was a 302, or a 327.

i got the date off of there, tho i'm not 100% i read the first part right, but the number's are 100% correct it starts either C (or g)..cannot tell exactly, but after that it reads k 8 70....

now from all the sites i found, none are too specific, a while back i found an awesome site that decodes all gm blocks but that was saved on my old favorites and i have googled myself half to death looking, can the crew help me out here?

[alloy]

www.mortec.com

['92 camaro boss]

so would it be safe to assume the motor was made august of 70?
or am i reading it wrong?

i just bought a 71 chevelle and it has a 305 from a 86 camaro in it now, but he gave me the motor he said he pulled from the chevelle and that's where the codes are from.

[Quasi-Traction]

3970010 is one of the most common engine castings.

it will have a 4" bore so it will be a 327/350.

[Twilightoptics]

I'd put money on it that it's a 2 bolt main 350.

If the block hasn't been decked you can look up the suffix code on the pad infront of the passenger side head.

[chevymad]

Doesnt the suffix code contain a partial vin as well? That would tell you if it matches the car.

Is the car a malibu? If so #s matching probably doesnt matter anyway. But still a very nice car. I had a 71 years ago, one of the nicer cars i've owned. Would love to have another.

[rjmcgee]

['92 camaro boss]

Ok, so pulled the oil pan off, it's a 4 bolt main, and cleaning more grease off found that what i thought was a 0 was actually from stamping. and the date is k 8 7.... so i'm assuming 11-8-1977. would that sound correct?

also ran the head number and found i do not have very desireable heads on there (462624) but the valves look much larger than the one's that were on my old el camino. but from everything i've found on them, along with info from our favorite thirdgen.org site, their prone to cracking.

at first glance they seemed ok, but their greasy.

could be good note, the internal's of the engine look great seeing how the motor was pulled and sitting under an old barn for 7 years.

also, i was looking at engine rebuild kits on summit, if your shooting for a build between 325-400hp. would one of their rebuild kits be ok to buy.. $200 seem's awfully cheap for a complete kit with pistons..

what kind of combo should i be looking for as far as heads, and cam. this will be my first engine build. and i want to know what i'm buying and that everything will match up right for good compression and what-not.

[chevymad]

Throw the heads away. Low compression and they crack bad. I had 3 pairs of them. All 6 heads were cracked. You want a kit with flat top pistons. If you can afford forged do it. Bang for the buck either get a set of iron L98 heads, or a set of vortec heads. But don't spend anything if you need to rebuild them. Cheaper to buy new in the first place.

Better yet, I think Paul(twilghtoptics) may still have a set of of heads that have been ported/polished/ground and are all ready to go.

If you're on a real budget the cast piston kits will work fine. All my stuff is running cast piston. But... if you go to upgrade in the future, and I know you'll want to, you'll be limited as to what you can do. Its much better to build as strong a bottom end as you can afford. Then you can change everything that bolts to it as you get more $$$.

['92 camaro boss]

Thank you!
lol, i've always wanted the dang chevelle i finally got it, i wana do it right, so simple talk helps me a bit, i know what L98 heads are, hear about them alot, i'm sure i'm going to want to do more later. but for now i just wana pull that range of hp.. found out just a few min's ago on the phone that my engine came from a 78 pick-up. current set-up has about 165hp he said if it's stock..

are heads and cam in older engine's where the big hp is gained?

and if paul reads this then hopfully he'll chime in and let me know about the heads. if not, i'll do some looking around. i was looking at dart heads too, idk what kind of reputation they have, but they're everywhere

[aaron_sK]

http://cascadecrew.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6379

Toss those on it with a decent cam, an Air-Gap, and a Holley. You should be in business.

[Twilightoptics]

[chevymad]

Darts a good head, but i'm not sure they perform well out of the box. I think they're more for racers. Because they have alot of meat in their castings you can go wild with the porting. The heads paul had for sale are on our for sale board. They're a good 305 casting. They have an excellent flowing port, then he took and put in large valves, opened the chambers up, and did some porting/polishing. So now they should be excellent on a 350.

Heads, cam and intake are always where the horsepower is made. But you still need to build a bottom end that will hold it. You have a good block to start with, and the crank is probably fine too. Rods will work, but they should have the bolts replaced and the big end resized. Sometimes by the time you do that you could have just bought some scat or eagle rods. Buying forged pistons means that you can add nitrous or even boost at some later date without building a completely new motor.

I have a soft spot for chevelles myself. I had a 68 SS 396 when i was 16. Then I bought a 71 malibu, working cowl hood, working a/c, sun roof.. and a 2 barrel 350.. but it was really nice. I had both cars at the same time!! Couldnt decide which I wanted to keep. Then I wrecked the malibu, that made my decision for me.
After that I got a 64 malibu SS, which I took completely apart and started restoring. I also had a 64 4 door I used for parts. This is the car crewbies call frankenvelle. I sold it a couple years ago. So except for the last 2 years, I've had a chevelle in the house since I was 16.. (nearing 40 now )

['92 camaro boss]

brought a tear to my eye seein you say you wrecked it.
chevelle's got me because my dad has a 71 also, and he drove me around everyother weekend i looked foward to getting in that car, now it's sitting rotting away and he wouldn't sell it to me, or fix it..why i found it weird when i went to this guy's 2nd and 3rd gen firebird and camaro lot i saw it sitting there and it was love at first sight,

right now it has a 305 outta a 85 or 86 z-28, from what he said it's simple stuff to get it running, we'll see, once i get it runnin i'll sell it, cause he thru in this 350 block and it's what the chevelle had in it when he got it, needed the ring's replaced he said.

its also 2 barrel, but that will change after i change everything else, i wanna get this car back on the road, don't see enough classics around here. its nice to own one and know you've got a great piece of american history....with a little canidan in it..dunno why but the intake on the 350 say's canada, my guesss....it was made in canada? lol

btw, paul you have a p.m.

[chevymad]

It lived on, new door, new quarter panel. Took the best parts off of it for my 68.. then resold it for $300 less then I paid originally. Here's a pic.. after the damage. Of course this is hte only photo i have. It was a 72 that had been changed into a 71 for looks.

['92 camaro boss]

dang, i really like the look of the 70's, i thought about putting that front on there, heard it's beend done a few times, but my dad came over today and said he had all the front piece's i needed to repair mine, so i think i'll take him up on it, i'll keep the goofy looking pointy marker lights for now.

front got damaged from a brush fire a few years ago the previous owner said, thankfully nothing was damaged besides the plastic lenses melted

here's a pic of the beast before it was towed home.

[chevymad]

You're lucky you live where its dry. These cars sit outside long at all here and they dont have a floor or rockers any more.

I've got relatives in Benton City. Do you know any Blains?

['92 camaro boss]

yea believe it or not, there's no weatherstriping left around the trunk and there's no rust in the pan's or the floorboards either, the rear quarter on the passanger side looks like if i sand it down i'm going to find bondo like crazy, and the other side looks like there's a small amount of bondo and rust thru. we'll see, for now i wana get the car running, dang thing just makes a weird "boooing" sound when i turn the key off. nothing when i turn the key on to tryin turn it over.

and sorry to say i do not, don't really talk to people in the town, if you've ever been up here i live about 3 mile's up from the conoco off the highway, up near seth ryan winerys.

[chevymad]

They live out of town too, but I couldnt tell you where lol.

['92 camaro boss]

ah lol, if i ever hear the name i'll be sure to ask.

so do you know where to find a functioning cowl hood like you had?
i've been looking around and really havn't found much.