Alright, Just so I have a baseline of what I am dealing with, as I cannot seem to find exact numbers in terms of Hp/Torque of this engine. Or really tell what it came out of. The numbers on the carb indicate it is a 73-74 engine. It has #8 heads, which iirc were 74-75. It has the 4-barrel Quadjet and a large-cap HEI. So, to me, that indicates that it may have come from a sportier model or something that got optioned out with the higher-performance parts. The engine has gold paint under flaking blue paint. I'm guessing someone painted it blue to kind of hide it when it was swapped into the truck.I know it's likely nothing special like a W-31, but I would at least have a rough idea of what stock output may have been, so I can figure out what parts to add to it to bump it up. From my understanding 73-74 they started going back to flat top or higher compression pistons with large CC heads to drop CR.

 

#8 heads were used from 1973 to 1976.

From what I know, all 1973-1976 350 engines were essentially the same, with 8.5:1 advertised compression ratio.

 

So really, the carb is the only thing that kinda pins it down to 73-74. Wasn't 76 the first year for the PMD heads and lightweight block?

 

160-180 hp SAE Net is the output range ….

 

No idea about the heads, unless you are meaning the 1977 3A or whatever number / letter they went to in that year after the #8 were discontinued. The 1976 blocks were solid main webs just like all other 68-76 blocks. 1977 was when the lightened windowed main web blocks were introduced.

 

Really, unless you know the entire history of the engine there's no way of knowing -- the engine could be a mongrel using parts from several different years. That carb you're pulling numbers off could have had a whole other engine slid beneath it.

And if it's ever been rebuilt, all bets are really off.

 

Look at the Vin pad by the driver's side head by #1 on the block. That will tell you the year. It will actually be about 7.9 to 1 actual compression. By the carb and gold paint, if orginal, maybe 1974? Does it have Oldsmobile valve covers? The 73 to 76 Olds 350's are basically identical, 165 to 180 HP and 265 to 300 ft-lbs of torque. The only difference is the early engines might have the much better N crank. My 73 350 had an unmarked crank that looked different than most of later weak lightweight 260 through 403 cranks looked like. I never heard an acceptable answer whether it was any different than the later Grey iron cranks.