I have what was supposed to be a 1971 350 rocket out of a cutlass supreme. I thought it had just number 7 heads but after looking into it more its got #7A heads. The block number is 395558 which your sights Oldsmobile wiki stats was used for both 1968-1970 and 1973-1974 casting numbers the crank has the numbers 393654 stamped on it the blocks been bored +.040 these numbers are on top of the pistons in purple . The number on the pistons underside is 963P will this help me find out what type and who makes them the look like domed pistons not sure ill be posting pics as well

 

Look at the VIN stamping on the raised pad on the driver side forward of the engine block. It should start with a "3". The next number will tell you the year of the block (8=1968, 9=1969, 0=1970, etc.). There will then be a letter, followed by 6 numbers. But that digit in the 2nd position will tell you the year of the engine block.


Randy C.

 

im going to post a picture to see if this is what your talking about

 

or are you talking about the 395558 ?

 

here

 

ok so in this picture iv marked where numbers are there is a 9 in the little orange circle where the blue or purple ovals on the other side of the valve cover there are numbers and just under the valve cover in the black pictures of these numbers are in the thumbnails at top of page

 

The "9" on the head means nothing [of any significance nowadays]

The _giant_ hard to ignore 7 or 7A on the head means 1971 or 1972 respectively year of issue, along with the 409147 casting number. You do have a computer and Google access, right?

I thought your question was the year of issue of the ENGINE, which means you should look at the VIN stamp as circled in post # 5. That is stamped with an impact and the alphanumeric stamp set into the ENGINE BLOCK. You can also read the first digit of the number on the oil fill tube, but that is technically removable and not part of the engine block.

Then again, it sounds like everything is changed inside the engine, so the exact year the block was made is pretty much irrelevant.

What do you really want to know or do with this engine?

 

i just want to figure out what i have and whats been done to it to figure out if what i paid for it was a good deal and i want to get a rough estimate on what kind of hp and compression itll be making i didnt see post #5 sorry ill check it tomorrow ill go over and look in person and im worried about having a garbage block that someone put good money into

 

While Post #5 nails it as well as it can be nailed, here's another picture of where to look for the VIN derivative:



- Eric

 

the engine stamping pad number is either 39M231004 or 32M231004 which means what its either a 69 or 72 block

 

The head shows a 7 (1971) possibly a 7 w a small A (1972) the block has a 9 or 2 so my guess is if the head is 7 small A the block is a 72 as well.

The 7 small A heads have an induction hardened valve seat. Aside from that pretty much there are only minor differences in the 68-72 350 blocks and heads. Olds changed the compression ratios with piston dishes.

 

Well there you go
it's a 1972 350, and the oil fill tube # would be "2______" and the carb number at the rear on the LH side would be 7042250 if it's a QJet.

I think you said rebuilt... so any pistons at all might be inside. CR will vary accordingly. The only way to tell what EXACTLY you have is to dismantle and go piece by piece. Maybe with the crank and cam and #1 piston still in place, run a cam profile using a degree wheel and see what the cam specs measure out to. Maybe the cam is marked on the rear face with mfgr and grind/ model.

The notch on the back of the crank indicates Nodular cast iron if it's an L shape, but it can be nodular cast iron even with a C shaped notch. The number looks like a lot of other 68-72+ cranks. Run every casting number thru Google and see what pops up.

The 72 350 is a fine starting point, no worries. Not the turd end of the spectrum. Nearly the W31 [best] end of the spectrum.

 

picture of my car AMC.jpg