Hello Members, I need a place to ask allot of questions. I have allot of motors in a pretty big garage. Im gonna take them one by one and find out what this all is. Im not a car guy but I'm learning to be one. The first one is all together on a cart... everything else is disassembled but organized. chevy orange either 265 or 283... Block casting number # 3731548, Block front tag # F225EC Intake manifold # 3746826 What can I definitely know about this engine and do I need to remove something to get an additional number? What websites do you use to look this kind of information up... or is the best thing a reference book. I really want to be confident in identifying these engines... Can we tell if this is out of an old corvette? Thanks for your help
Google the part numbers to start with. You’ve got the resource, use it for something other than asking others to do it for you.
The engine that you have shown is a '57 283. It should have had a 4 bbl carb and overdrive transmission. The carb has been changed. The engine was built at the Flint plant (F) on February (2) 25th (25)
Some of the resources list both engines... So not sure still exactly what the saavy way is to tell the difference.. do you know?
First of all, you can tell it is an early SBC block by the fact that it doesn't have motor mount bosses on the sides of the block. Then, become an investigator and collect some casting and casting date codes as well as the engine assembly plant, date code, and engine code suffix from the boss on the front of the block under the passenger side head. Take the valve covers off and get the head casting number with associated alpha-numeric date code that are located on the top center of the head. The letters correspond to the months of the year as A=Jan, L=Dec. Now, become an analyst and see if things make sense. A ficticious example: you know that it's an early block becuz of no provision for side motor mounts. '55s were 265ci, '56s were 265ci, and '57s were either 265ci or 283ci. The casting date ends in a six so it must be a '56 and a 265ci. But not so fast. Engine parts can be cast up to several months prior to assembly and the assembly date code breaks out to Nov 27, 1956. Well, you know that new year models are introduced in Oct of the prior year. So, while the casting and assembly dates are 1956, it is actually a 1957 model engine. Now, you'll need to find the engine code suffix for 1957 to see what it really is. Contrary to popular belief or more likely popular seller puffing that it's a Corvette engine, not all SBC's are Corvette engines. For your specific engine, the engine code suffix (EC) denotes a 283/220hp, 4bbl equipped, engine with overdrive trans out of a '57 Chevy passenger car. The casting number on the heads is likely 3731539, which is a "PowerPack" head with a "pyramid" casting symbol on the front of the head. '57 was a tricky year becuz Chevy used the same casting number for both the 265 and 283. From the factory they were painted different colors to differentiate them, but changing colors is easy, so you have to do your homework with the numbers and especially the engine code suffix. Then do your analysis.
I put together a little information on the early Chevy V8s (and sixes) a while back. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-chevy-engine-numbers.184304/ I suggest you read it, and if you still have questions, ask away. I have more suffix code listings available, too. Some things to keep in mind...as mentioned, you can get a rough idea of the year of an engine by noting what features the engine has, although this takes a while to learn. Don't be surprised if an engine block has different heads or manifolds installed on it, than it originally came with, because these things have been worked on and modified for several decades. Also, the casting numbers can be tricky to read, the way they were cast, it's easy to mistake numbers like 3, 8, 9, 6, 5 etc. because they are not always cast crisply, and the style of numbers they used was not designed to be unambiguous (they changed that later, in the 1980s). So if you're searching for a casting number and don't find it, try a few different permutations, substituting (for example) 3 for 8.
Thanks so much... I'm amazed at the knowledge base out there on this stuff.. Ill take the valve covers off and do some more reading... Thanks to all and to Bowtie for the extra long response... I hear experience talkin...
The very first 55 chevy I ever owned (about 5 decades ago) had the radiator in the 6 cyl position. I was told it had a 56 265 engine. The block was painted bright red. It had powerpack heads rams horn manifolds and a cast iron intake from a 300 hp 327 and carter afb carb. Solid lifter cam. It ran very well. I eventually blew a piston. And found it was a 3& 7/8 bore. same as a stock 283. and the pistons where flat tops no valve reliefs. I still have the heads and they are extensively reworked 57 castings. I suspect what I had was a 57 283 with a 56 casting date.
We are use to that distributor now but it is a later V8 distributor. 57 had the smaller cap and rotor like a six. My buddy Mike Jones used to buy those rotors a handful at a time because he broke them when he nailed his 57 until someone showed him that he needed to cut off the screw coming through the firewall.
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