My v8 conversion thread, With pics, progress, questions ect!! Options

[Andyrew]

So making it official I am making this my one v8 progress thread, I will possibly post questions about the conversion elswhere, but my progress will go here.
Anyways, the story..
Knowing that I needed a new engine, I searched for some conversions, finding a few, then falling through, I ask about a v8 conversion, two guys here generously said that they will help and sell me some of their stuff. Together I will be able to make a nice conversion on a very limited budget. Here I will take the time to thanks Scott K and Steve H for what they have done and what they will do.

Anyways with that, I then went to pick and pull and found a 305 engine from some later car. We look all around and cant find an engine number.. Hey, its a v8, we need to pull something, Lets just do it (im very glad I said that..)
We then get the engine home and I plop off the valve covers and find that it has 350 heads(via the number), hmm.. Interesting... So I go and find the block number look it up. Sure enough, its a 350 block. Well thats not enough for me, I take it apart check the bore, theck the stroke, Yuppers 4in bore, something or other stroke, Yup its definately a 350! Whats not known is why it was in a 305 car.. So checking the pistons dad says there high compression, I wouldnt know any better.
So then talking about radiators, Mike Mueller kindly offers me his (very large) aluminum radiator for cheep. I take him up on his offer and drive to his house to see his garage packed with neet toys! Thanks mike for the walk through! We enjoyed it!
So we go home, and later in the week(yesterday) I start taking off the pistons, I get one off and clean it, trying to find an overbore number.. Cant fine one Check the bearings, they have .0005 on them. No clue what that means...
Anyways, while taking out the rest of the pistons dad stares at something for a second, laughs, and shows me that it is a 4 bolt main. So, now where very curious to why it was in a regular family car.. 84 or such.

Anyways, enough with the gabber, heres my list of pics..

[skline]

Ok, First off, the pistons are standard GM pistons, the cross hatching on the cylinders tells me it has been bored at least once, but not worn much since, the black on teh camshaft tells me that it doesnt have that many miles on it40 to 50k, the block is for sure a factory 4 bolt main block so it is a 350, the numbers you were referring to mean the engine was made in 4 of 83, what year car did you say it was in? If you give me the number stamped on the front pad on the block in front of the head and behind the alternator, I can tell you what the engine was originally installed in and with what options ie: HP rating, transmission, with or without A/C and so on. Also give me the casting number off the head and I can see what that is also. If they are 305 heads, you got lucky, they have the smaller chambers for higher compression, mine are 55cc, stock they run 58cc. Mine have been modified with larger valves which made the chambers smaller. Anything I can do to help you get it up ad going, let me know.

Scott

Oh BTW, I worked for Chevrolet back in the 70's as an automatic transmission line mechanic.