Darlow1

Hi everyone, I bought a 1974 olds 442 this past week. I owned the same car 15 years ago, due to living arrangements at the time, I was forced to sell. The friend who bought it did nothing with the car and after years of bugging the daylights out of him, he agreed to sell it back, lol

Question I have is this: The VIN has a K for the engine ID. From what other sites tell me, the K indicates a 350 engine, and it is a big block. Thing is, there is a breather in the trunk that has the 455 label on it. I located a number on the oil filler tube which is 3547792. I have searched the net and cant find a reference to this number.

Any thoughts, thanks David

Jim's rare 80

Hi. Try this link. This should help you determine what you have for sure.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/Block_ID.jpg

Just let us know if you need help to ID the heads. Hope this helps. Jim.

Darlow1

Thank you for the information, as a matter of fact the ID that I have is the same as the picture on the link: 396021F.

Darlow1

Hi everyone, I did figure out that it is a 396021Fa, which is the right engine for the year of the car. Not sure why the VIN has a K for the engine, possibly the engine was swapped. Time will tell, thanks

joe_padavano

There's a very easy way to tell if the engine is original to the car. There is a VIN-derivative stamped on the block. There is a pad located on the drivers side of the block at the front, below and just forward of the number one exhaust port. The pad is usually covered with crud and will be partly obscured by the power steering bracket. The VIN-derivative is stamped on this pad.

The VIN-derivative is a nine character number. The first character will always be "3" for Oldsmobile Division. The second will be the year of manufacture - a "4" for 1974. The third character is usually a letter and designates the manufacturing plant (M = Lansing, Z = Freemont, CA, etc.). This letter must match the seventh character of the VIN. The last six digits of the VIN-derivative match the last six of the VIN from the car that the motor was originally installed in. All numbers must match (hence the term "numbers matching") for this to be the original engine.

Darlow1

Hi everyone, it has been awhile since I first originally posted this thread. Been busy doing other things, but winter is coming so now I will have time.

I pulled the engine out of the car, removed the power steering pump and the header on the driver side. I cant see any stamp on the block in the area that was alluded to previously. I am sure it is a 455 engine. Would the stamp on the engine be in the same area if the engine were an older one?

I did find numbers that were stamped on the head, directly above the #1 spark plug, three numbers on one side of the exhaust port and three on the other side.

Thanks

don71

This link will show you what Joe was talking about.

http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o...es/Head_ID.jpg

Below the letter on the head...........thats what you are looking for.

Redog

1972 to 1976 455, no clutch ball, 39* lifter angle, 0.842 lifter bore, 4.125 cyl bore

Darlow1

Thanks for the link, that was really cool. I cleaned up the area as best as I could, but no number could be found. Are the numbers stamped right into the block or are that stamped on a pad which might be attached to the block? The area is pitted pretty good, due to 33 years of rust, lol. Above the water pump I have the number 396021FA, which from what I gather is a 455 engine from 72 - 76. I do have a J on the cylinder head above the area where the number should be. I mentioned before that I have a K in the vin, which means a 350. The mystery thickens, lol.

Thanks everyone for your help.

joe_padavano

Not really. The motor has been replaced.

The VIN derivative is stamped into the pad that's an integral part of the block. The stamped numbers are sometimes very faint and rust pitting doesn't help.

Bottom line is that there's no big mystery. The VIN is THE definitive proof that the car was born with a 350. That info is required by federal law for emissions control purposes. At some point in the last 33 years, a 73-76 big block was installed. The car's not original. Just drive it and enjoy it.