If you buy an old truck & the engine has been swapped out, how can you tell what year/model it came out of?

Question

I bought an old truck & the guy said it had a 1982 Chevy Camaro 350 engine in it, but when I go to get parts at my auto store they tell me in 1982 Camaro only came with a 305 engine.
He also told me it had a 400 turbo automatic transmission out of a 1985 Chevy El Camino, but agian my parts store says 1985 El Camino didn,'t come with a 400 turbo trans. So, how can I find out what year & model car both of these came out of? THANKS!

Answer 1

I own a shop and have been down that road too. I don't care what anyone tells you, there is only one way to identify what the engine came out of. On the block just below the head on the front passenger side of the engine, is a flat spot milled on the block. This should be right behind the alternator. This pad will have all the information you need to tell the story. There will be some numbers followed by some letters. The letters is what you want to go by. There should be three of them. An example would be AJM or any combination of letters. Before this will be some numbers. The numbers will tell the month, the day, the plant, and the shift that assembled the engine. The letter code will tell you the car/truck, the year, the cubic inch, 2 or 4 bolt mains, the horsepower, What the induction was (2brl, 4 brl, or fuel injection), the vin code, and other information such as the transmission that was mounted behind the engine. It may even tell you some other valuable information such as; if it was an air conditioned vehicle. Now, as far as the casting numbers (that are located on the drivers side in the rear, just above the bell housing) will tell you the cubic inch of the block, the bore, the material composition of the block, and if it was for a front or rear wheel drive vehicle. If you will go to www.summitracing.com/ and go to their Books and Apparel section, you will find some books called MSA-1 Decoding Guides. The one you need is #MSA-2123 ($19.95), and it covers 1955-1999 Factory Part & Casting Number Guide. I have these books, and they are worth the money. You can get them to cover any part on any Chevrolet that has a part, or casting number on it. It will tell you where to look, what it is, and the specifications of the part. These books are worth their weight in gold to someone who goes to swap meets, or junk yards in search of engine's to transmissions.
Glad to help out, Good Luck!!!

Answer 2

the best and most informative way would be to get the suffix stamping code off the front of the block on the flat machined pad jut in front of the passenger side cylinder head behind where the alternator would be

he is right no camaros in 82 had a 350 the largest engine offered in these cars was the 305 until 1987 so it did not come from an 82 camaro

get the last three letters code off the front of the engine deck and go to this page and look in the suffix stamping code menu and lookup the code you have

http://www.nastyz28.com/chevy-engine-code-stampings.php



also check this page out

http://www.nastyz28.com/index.php?page=smallblockchevyblockindentification


everything you need to find out what you have is here, for the engine anyways

as for the transmission if it is square with one corner cut off and 13 bolts around the pan then it is a th350 or a th250

if it is big and irregular and shaped like IL or TX then its a th400

if its big and rectangle and smooth all except for a little indentation in the middle of the rear edge of the pan then its a 700R4


http://pageperso.aol.fr/sdgreyefdbv/section+technik/01.JPG

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Musiclicker was very on the mark, but you can go to www.mortec.com and research the crap out of any chevrolet 8 engine big and small block plus "W" motors.

Answer 5

Setup a Paypal account and ask people to donate because your truck "blowed up." You and your wife sound like an interesting couple.

Answer 6

gm has a emblem like a clock face cast in there blocks. it will tell you month and year block was made. also motor has serial number as well as tranny. you can right them down and most any chevy service shop will be able to tell you any thing you ever need to know about them.